If you’ve been following some of our recent cases, you know that we often investigate products that have been misrepresented or adulterated. What exactly does that mean and why is it important? Misrepresentation and adulteration are two ways in which food fraud can be accomplished. In the case of misrepresentation, a product is presented in a way that is misleading to the consumer in order to induce the purchase of the product. For example, a misrepresentation would be claiming that a meat product has “never been frozen” when it was absolutely frozen somewhere along the supply chain. The misrepresentation might also be paired with mislabeling if the product itself carries this incorrect description. Adulteration usually refers to something being added to a product. It is usually something cheaper than the product itself that allows for a profit because now the original amount of genuine supply can be stretched further. For example, a wine seller takes a line of dessert wine and adds sugar water to it. Now the same amount of wine that would have filled 150,000 bottles might instead fill 200,000. A few methods used in food fraud include substitution, counterfeiting and dilution. All three involved a cheaper ingredient or food being swapped with or added to the product and the product being sold as if it were pure.
Besides the obvious ethical and legal implications, why is food fraud so important? Simply put, it can be incredibly dangerous for the consumer. For example, one of the most common foods in the US that is susceptible to food fraud is olive oil. Think what might happen if something like peanut oil were to be used to dilute and “stretch” the original product? Anyone with a peanut allergy might consume the oil in their own cooking or even in a restaurant and the result could be catastrophic. At that point, the fraudulent behavior might be found out but it would be too little, too late for that consumer. This is why identifying food fraud and holding everyone along that chain of supply and demand accountable BEFORE there is a major health concern is so important!
If you would like to read more about food fraud and its impacts on society, as well as several examples of real food fraud cases, click here.