From December 2019
Mitigating food fraud - new technology
Food manufacturers and suppliers need to minimise the risk of purchasing fraudulent or adulterated food raw materials and ensure that all product descriptions and claims are legal, accurate and verified. For those working to BRCGS Global standard for food safety, these are explicit requirements of the standard.
In addition to supply chain vulnerability checks, there is often a need to test high-risk raw materials and ingredients for adulteration or substitution - for which there are many analytical approaches. However, interest is growing for simple and rapid screening technologies that have the potential to be used in-house.
One of our member-funded research projects investigated the use of screening methods to check the authenticity of a spice material. The project specifically demonstrated how a highly portable near-infrared spectroscopy device could be used to scan batches of ground ginger. A simple plant DNA screening approach was also developed to further investigate the potential presence of other plant adulterants in non-conforming batches. Our members will be able to use the results from this project to adopt similar screening practises, helping them control other types of high-risk materials.
Contact: Steve Garrett
+44(0)1386 842175
steve.garrett@campdenbri.co.uk