Tentamus labs open the "Global Center of Excellence for Food Fraud"
Oct 5, 2017 - Foods
Tentamus labs open the "Global Center of Excellence for Food Fraud"
Food adulteration and fraud have become a central topic in the food industry and regulatory surveillance in recent years, particularly since the "horsemeat scandal." This has also been addressed in the new EU Control Regulation (Regulation (EC) 2017/625), as combating food fraud will also be a focus of food surveillance controls in the future. The laboratories of the Tentamus Group are extensively engaged in the investigation of food fraud and detect adulterations in many different products, including:
- Coffee: Detection of blending cheaper Robusta coffee with high-value Arabica varieties
- Tea: Dilution with other plant parts
- Herbs and spices: Adulteration with other green plant components
- Fruits and vegetables: Origin analysis
- Wine: Blending with wine of less valuable origin
- Fruit juices: Addition of other undeclared fruit types
- Olive oil: Adulteration with non-cold-pressed oils or mixing with cheap non-olive oils
- Honey: Addition of sugar-containing syrups, authenticity regarding botanical and geographical origin
- Chocolate: Detection of foreign aromas
- Buffalo mozzarella: Adulteration with cow's milk
- Meat and sausage products: Addition of other animal species than declared
- Fish: e.g., proportion of bonito in tuna (Thunnus spec.)
- Dairy products: Origin (cow, sheep, goat)
- (Allergenic) plants: e.g., soy, wheat, mustard, walnut, hazelnut, peanut, celery, lupine, etc.
The analysis of adulterations is gaining increasing importance and, alongside residue analysis, is an intensively addressed area. Various analytical methods are used, including FT-IR, TOF-MS, EA-IRMS, LC/MS/MS, NMR, PCR, NGS, and ELISA.
Together with our laboratories in producing countries, including Spain, Italy, Israel, the USA, and China, the laboratories based in Germany—bilacon, QSI, aromaLAB, lifeprint, and BAV—are part of the "Global Center of Excellence for Food Fraud," which aims to detect adulterations in food products.
If you have any questions about food fraud, simply contact your customer representative.