Innovative food fraud analysis methods are widely needed to help routine food labs accurately detect and verify food fraud.

Food fraud involves deliberate and purposeful tampering of food, food ingredients or food packaging for the sake of profit and in some instances, considered a criminal act. Whether it’s watered-down milk or adding green colorant to sunflower oil to pass it off as olive oil, food fraud aims to deceive and mislead either a manufacturer or consumer. However so, only a handful are reported or worse even exposed as many food fraud testing methods can’t clearly pinpoint the culprit.

Food Safety Hang-Ups
Globalization has expanded the food supply chain. With food crossing boundaries, regulators struggle to trace adulterated ingredients and safeguard our food supply chain. Food ingredients most susceptible to these practices include milk, olive oil, honey, fish, coffee, juices, tea and spices like saffron and black pepper. Even the authenticity of meat products is in question post the horsemeat scandal of 2013. It’s evident that food traceability is a long-standing issue that looms within the realms of food fraud and safety testing. The two most common food fraud analysis hurdles include the lack of:

• Accurate non-targeted multi-analyte methods to trace multi-species/ variety
• Method standardization and validation

LC-MS/MS: A Food Fraud Testing Solution
With SCIEX, tracing the authenticity of food products has never been easier with food fraud testing solutions that cut through these issues. From fast food and beverage profiling, our high-resolution LC-MS/MS enables you to survey and compare contents in food samples; including running rapid non-targeted tests to detect unexpected adulterants and assess the ingredient authenticity.