SM: 8 Food frauds on your shopping list

8 Food frauds on your shopping list

Most consumers know to ignore emails alerting them to foreign lottery winnings and to steer clear of "designer" bags sold on street corners. But experts say even scam-savvy shoppers may be falling prey to fraud at a surprising place: the grocery store.

Food fraud -- the adulteration, dilution or mislabeling of goods stocked on the shelf -- is part of a growing trend of faux household goods . Although there is little data on the frequency of food fakery, experts say there's growing awareness of the problem. The lack of information on the subject recently prompted the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention -- a nonprofit that sets standards used by the FDA -- to establish a Food Fraud Database. And a new study in the Journal of Food Science analyzed the top offenders identified by the database, including olive oil, milk and honey. "We're seeing similar trends in food to other items -- if it can be faked, it probably is," says Tara Steketee, the senior manager for brand protection at OpSec Security, an anti-counterfeiting consulting firm. "There are actually counterfeit tomatoes, believe it or not." (In that example, she says, garden-variety tomatoes get marketed as the more expensive heirloom ones.)

...

Olive Oil

Accounting for 16% of the database's recorded cases, olive oil is the food most subject to fraud, according to the Journal of Food Sciences study. In most cases, experts say, consumers are merely getting a bad deal -- regular olive oil instead of pricier extra virgin, say, or a less expensive variety from Greece instead of Italy as the label proclaims.

Milk

Adulterated milk is typically watered down and then laced with melamine, which increases the protein content to hide the dilution, Spink says.

Honey

The Journal of Food Sciences study pegged honey as a top fake, representing 7% of food fraud cases. Last year, Food Safety News tests also found that 75% of store honey doesn’t contain pollen.

Fruit Juice

Fraudsters find it easy to dilute expensive juices without a notable change in taste or consistency, says Kircher.

Alcohol

Just a few weeks ago, a New York wine dealer was arrested for allegedly trying to sell rare -- but counterfeit -- wines for $1.3 million. Collectively, wines, spirits and liquors represent just 2% of cases in the USPC's Food Fraud database. Most faux wines are just a cheaper vintage and a bad bargain, but adulterated spirits are potentially more dangerous, says Steketee.

Fish

"It's easy to sell a piece of fish as one species when in reality it's another species," says Kircher. Farmed fish also get advertised as more expensive wild versions.

Click on the link for the full article