Economically motivated adulteration (EMA) of food, also known as food fraud, is the intentional adulteration of food for financial advantage. A common form of EMA, undeclared substitution with ...alternative ingredients, is usually a health concern because of allergen labeling requirements. As demonstrated by the nearly 300,000 illnesses in China from melamine adulteration of infant formula, EMA also has the potential to result in serious public health consequences. Furthermore, EMA incidents reveal gaps in quality assurance testing methodologies that could be exploited for intentional harm. In contrast to foodborne disease outbreaks, EMA incidents present a particular challenge to the food industry and regulators because they are deliberate acts that are intended to evade detection. Large-scale EMA incidents have been described in the scientific literature, but smaller incidents have been documented only in media sources. We reviewed journal articles and media reports of EMA since 1980. We identified 137 unique incidents in 11 food categories: fish and seafood (24 incidents), dairy products (15), fruit juices (12), oils and fats (12), grain products (11), honey and other natural sweeteners (10), spices and extracts (8), wine and other alcoholic beverages (7), infant formula (5), plant-based proteins (5), and other food products (28). We identified common characteristics among the incidents that may help us better evaluate and reduce the risk of EMA. These characteristics reflect the ways in which existing regulatory systems or testing methodologies were inadequate for detecting EMA and how novel detection methods and other deterrence strategies can be deployed. Prevention and detection of EMA cannot depend on traditional food safety strategies. Comprehensive food protection, as outlined by the Food Safety Modernization Act, will require innovative methods for detecting EMA and for targeting crucial resources toward the riskiest food products.
The ubiqitous microorganism
Enterobacter sakazakii is a rare contaminant of infant formula and may cause severe systemic infection in neonates. So far, other food is not known to cause
E. ...sakazakii-infections. The scarce information about the ecology of
E. sakazakii and the uncertainty concerning the source of infection in children and adults warrant a summary of the current knowledge about the presence of this opportunistic microorganism in food other than infant formula. This review systematizes publications on the presence of
E. sakazakii in food and beverages until June 2006. Food other than infant formula has been rarely investigated for the presence of
E. sakazakii. Nevertheless, this microorganism could be isolated from a wide spectrum of food and food ingredients.
E. sakazakii was isolated from plant food and food ingredients like cereal, fruit and vegetables, legume products, herbs and spices as well as from animal food sources like milk, meat and fish and products made from these foods. The spectrum of
E. sakazakii-contaminated food covers both raw and processed food. The kind of processing of
E. sakazakii-contaminated food was not restricted to dry products. Fresh, frozen, ready-to-eat, fermented and cooked food products as well as beverages and water suitable for the preparation of food, were found to be contaminated by
E. sakazakii. Although
E. sakazakii-contaminated food do not have general public health significance, measures for prevention should consider the presence of
E. sakazakii in food, food ingredients, their processing and preparation as possible source of contamination, colonization or infection.
Given evident multiple threats to food systems and supplies, food security, human health and welfare, the living and physical world and the biosphere, the years 2016–2025 are now designated by the UN ...as the Decade of Nutrition, in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. For these initiatives to succeed, it is necessary to know which foods contribute to health and well-being, and which are unhealthy. The present commentary outlines the NOVA system of food classification based on the nature, extent and purpose of food processing. Evidence that NOVA effectively addresses the quality of diets and their impact on all forms of malnutrition, and also the sustainability of food systems, has now accumulated in a number of countries, as shown here. A singular feature of NOVA is its identification of ultra-processed food and drink products. These are not modified foods, but formulations mostly of cheap industrial sources of dietary energy and nutrients plus additives, using a series of processes (hence ‘ultra-processed’). All together, they are energy-dense, high in unhealthy types of fat, refined starches, free sugars and salt, and poor sources of protein, dietary fibre and micronutrients. Ultra-processed products are made to be hyper-palatable and attractive, with long shelf-life, and able to be consumed anywhere, any time. Their formulation, presentation and marketing often promote overconsumption. Studies based on NOVA show that ultra-processed products now dominate the food supplies of various high-income countries and are increasingly pervasive in lower-middle- and upper-middle-income countries. The evidence so far shows that displacement of minimally processed foods and freshly prepared dishes and meals by ultra-processed products is associated with unhealthy dietary nutrient profiles and several diet-related non-communicable diseases. Ultra-processed products are also troublesome from social, cultural, economic, political and environmental points of view. We conclude that the ever-increasing production and consumption of these products is a world crisis, to be confronted, checked and reversed as part of the work of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and its Decade of Nutrition.
In the last decade, ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) has reemerged as an analytical separation technique, especially due to the commercialization of ion mobility mass spectrometers. Its applicability ...has been extended beyond classical applications such as the determination of chemical warfare agents and nowadays it is widely used for the characterization of biomolecules (e.g., proteins, glycans, lipids, etc.) and, more recently, of small molecules (e.g., metabolites, xenobiotics, etc.). Following this trend, the interest in this technique is growing among researchers from different fields including food science. Several advantages are attributed to IMS when integrated in traditional liquid chromatography (LC) and gas chromatography (GC) mass spectrometry (MS) workflows: (1) it improves method selectivity by providing an additional separation dimension that allows the separation of isobaric and isomeric compounds; (2) it increases method sensitivity by isolating the compounds of interest from background noise; (3) and it provides complementary information to mass spectra and retention time, the so-called collision cross section (CCS), so compounds can be identified with more confidence, either in targeted or non-targeted approaches. In this context, the number of applications focused on food analysis has increased exponentially in the last few years. This review provides an overview of the current status of IMS technology and its applicability in different areas of food analysis (i.e., food composition, process control, authentication, adulteration and safety).
Food insecurity is a complex ‘wicked’ problem that results from a range of unstable and uncertain physical, social, cultural and economic factors that limits access to nutritious food. Globally, 800 ...million people are under-nourished, and around 2 billion are overweight/obese or have micronutrient deficiency. These populations are largely positioned in developing countries where disease burden is high and impacts health budgets and productivity. Similarly developed countries, cities and neighbourhoods are experiencing a greater emergence of vulnerable populations. This is in part explained by the change in the food production and manufacturing, the retraction in economic climates, the increase in food price, and in some regions reduced food availability and access.Vulnerable groups include but are not limited to migrant populations, Indigenous people, elderly, pregnant women, those with disability, homeless, young children and youth. Poor nutrition at significant periods of growth and development and during life impact long term health outcomes increasing non-communicable disease prevalence, health cost and reducing economic productivity.
: Nanotechnology and nanomaterials have tremendous potential to enhance the food supply through novel applications, including nutrient and bioactive absorption and delivery systems; ingredient ...functionality; improved colors and flavors; microbial, allergen, and contaminant detection and control; and food packaging properties and performance. To determine the current state of knowledge regarding the safety of these potential uses of nanomaterials, an appraisal of the published literature on the safety of food‐related nanomaterials was undertaken. A method of assessment of reliability of toxicology studies was developed to conduct this appraisal. The review of the toxicology literature on oral exposure to food‐related nanomaterials found that the number of studies is limited. Exposure to nanomaterials in the human food chain may occur not only through intentional uses in food manufacturing, but also via uses in agricultural production and carry over from use in other industries. Although a number of analytical methods are useful in physicochemical characterization of manufactured nanomaterials, new methods may be needed to more fully detect and characterize nanomaterials incorporated into foods and in other media. There is a need for additional toxicology studies of sufficient quality and duration on different types of nanomaterials to further our understanding of the characteristics of nanomaterials that affect safety of oral exposure resulting from use in various food applications.
China's food safety system is in crisis. Egregious scandals, as varied as the sale of liquor laced with Viagra and the distribution of fake eggs, reveal how regulatory practices have been stretched ...to their limit in the world's largest food production system. On Feeding the Masses focuses on the oft-cited but ultimately overlooked concept of scale to identify the root causes of China's regulatory failures in food safety. The 'politics of scale' framework highlights how regulators disagree on which level of government is best suited to regulate ('the scale of governance'), struggle to address multilevel tensions ('multidimensional scale integration'), and fail to understand how policies at one level of government can affect other levels of government in unexpected and costly ways ('scale externalities'). Drawing from over 200 interviews with food safety regulators and producers, the study provides one of the most comprehensive accounts of China's food safety crisis to date.
Seasonal hunger induced by agricultural seasonality is often a characteristic feature of rural poverty. The evidence of seasonal distress in many agrarian societies can be found in the narratives of ...economic historians. With agricultural diversification made possible through technological breakthroughs in many parts of the developing world, the severity of seasonal stress and adversities has been reduced considerably, if not altogether eliminated. In certain agricultural settings, however, the seasonality of poverty and hunger, along with the associated seasonal shortfalls in income and consumption, is still a policy quagmire. The problem gets more complicated when agricultural seasonality is locked into a cycle of endemic poverty, seasonal hunger, and risk of further impoverishment. Poverty and seasonality may also reinforce each other through various other forces that create and sustain both. The thrust of policy needs to be to break this interlocking cycle of poverty and seasonality. The book has nine chapters. Chapter two looks at the key conceptual issues and presents a global perspective on the challenge of addressing seasonal hunger. Chapter three brings Bangladesh's reality to the fore regarding seasonal poverty and food insecurity and the vulnerability of the northwest region. Chapter four analyzes the vulnerability of households to seasonal hunger, their coping strategies, and the extent to which income seasonality affects seasonal poverty and food deprivation. Chapter five reports some findings for both the Rangpur region and the country as a whole regarding the effects of policies and programs on poverty and food deprivation. The findings reported in the next three chapters are mainly related to the Rangpur region only. Chapter six examines the issue of seasonal migration in the context of mitigating seasonal deprivation. In chapter seven, the impact of the social safety-net programs is tested, whereas the effectiveness of microfinance is assessed in chapter eight. The concluding chapter, chapter nine, looks at the policy implications while also pointing to some emerging challenges.
This book challenges policy makers who oversee the rice sector in Southeast Asia to reexamine deep-rooted precepts about their responsibilities. As an essential first step, it calls on them to ...redefine food security. Fixating on national self-sufficiency has been costly and counterproductive. In its stead, coordination and cooperation can both improve rice production at home and structure expanding regional trade. To enhance regional food security through quantitative and qualitative gains in rice production, policy makers cannot solely rely on government programs. They need to also enlist private investors both as entrepreneurs and as partners who can bring capital, energy, modern technology, and experienced management into sustained efforts to reduce losses and heighten efficiency in supply chains. For such investors and participants to enter vigorously into the rice sector from which they have long held back, they will need a number of incentives, among them a confidence that the regional market for rice will evolve toward a structured, liberalized market shielded from the unilateral government interventions that have distorted it in the past and continue to do so in the present. The study's findings make it clear that current rice sector policies are not achieving their desired goals. Its examination of the 2007-08 food crises found, in fact, that government policies and panicky responses were the primary factors behind soaring (and later diminishing) rice prices. Those policies vary, but they share a common premise: food security depends, first of all, on self-sufficiency in rice. That premise has driven government intervention for decades, and unpredictable government intervention, in turn, has been a significant factor in making the rice sector too risky to attract significant private investment. The transition that this study urges will be difficult and, of necessity, slow to gain momentum. Nevertheless, it is already beginning. The members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are working to liberalize trade in the region. The study is, in fact, intended to assist in implementing policy objectives outlined in the ASEAN Integrated Food Security (AIFS) framework and in the strategic plan of action on food security in the ASEAN Region 2009-2013, in which the heads of member states pledged to embrace food security as a matter of permanent and high priority.
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