Product Imitation and Adulteration Determination Tests

Chemical Tests

Product Imitation and Adulteration Determination Tests

Demographic and commercial trends show that there will be a significant increase in animal food production in the coming years. In this case, health risks are expected to increase at the same rate. In recent years, food fraud has emerged as a potential threat to many countries and has adverse effects on public health and international trade in livestock products. For this reason, it is the joint responsibility of public and private organizations to ensure food hygiene in order to guarantee the right of people to eat safe food.

Product Imitation and Adulteration Determination Tests

Traditional food safety is based on the risk-free access of people to nutritional facilities. However, current trends are not at all in this direction. From a legal point of view, mixing (adulteration) food deceives consumers who do not buy the product they want in terms of quality or quantity, and clearly violates fair trade principles. The presence of fraudulent products in the market creates quality concerns and insecurity in consumers specific to food hygiene.

Food fraud and adulteration prevent food safety by ignoring the composition and origin of ingredients added to food and their side effects on the health of consumers. At the same time, it prevents the implementation of collective policies and programs aimed at protecting public health by official institutions. In addition, consumers are now more aware of what they are eating. From this point of view, ensuring the authenticity of a food item is very important in the safety of a certain food product.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that counterfeit and adulterated foods pose a risk to international standards by endangering the health of consumers through various side effects on the human organism. These side effects occur with the biological accumulation of toxic compounds in the human body and range from their accumulation to the death of consumers.

The number of product imitation and adulteration events is gradually increasing. Food adulteration incidents in recent years such as mixing melamine into milk in China or horse meat scandal in European Union countries reveal that this is a global problem. Also, the true extent of imitation and adulteration traffic in most countries is unknown. In this respect, adulteration of animal by-products is a major concern in our country, especially in terms of health problems and economic costs.

Generally, food fraud is done as follows:

  • Adulteration: One or more of the components of a product are different from the original composition. For example, melamine in milk.
  • Diversion: Selling and distributing products without legal requirements or certificates. For example, halal meat fraud.
  • Inaccurate labeling: Providing incorrect information on the packaging or label, or missing complete data. For example, incorrect labeling of fishery products.
  • Substitution: Replacing a food with a completely similar and inexpensive product (this is also counterfeit). For example, using horse meat instead of beef tissue in beef meatballs.

Essentially as a human right, public health and access to safe food encompass the following four elements:

  • Protection of the consumer by following the general quality of the product distributed
  • Intervention to prevent food fraud
  • Ensuring food hygiene
  • Fighting agricultural terrorism

In the fight against the adulteration of food derived from animal products, the development and harmonization of new laboratory analyzes has concrete effects. More specific and effective standardized analysis methods are being developed in advanced laboratories. These methods detect the presence of new adulterants and include techniques to eliminate ingredient substitution. In this way, it is possible to verify food integrity. In addition, new systems are being developed to investigate the geographical origin of a foodstuff.

Commonly used methods to determine the authenticity of animal products are:

  • Immunoassay or enzyme-linked immunosorbent test (ELISA)
  • Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
  • Liquid or gas chromatography
  • Short range infrared spectroscopy

Of these, PCR method is the most specific and sensitive method for detecting traces of animal proteins or impurities. However, it is relatively expensive compared to other methods and requires special laboratory equipment for its implementation. In contrast, the immunoassay or ELISA method is inexpensive and allows rapid testing, but shows false positive reactions due to cross-reaction with some foods. For example, proteins found in bovine milk cross-react with similar nutrients found in goat, sheep or buffalo milk.

It is essential to ensure food security in order to protect public health and promote food trade.

Our organization, among numerous testing, measurement, analysis and evaluation studies, provides product imitation and adulteration determination test services to demanding enterprises within the framework of national and international standards, with its trained and expert staff and advanced technological equipment.

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