Food Safety and Adulteration

1. Food Safety and Adulteration Assoc. Prof. Martina Fikselová,PhD. Department ofFood Hygiene and Safety FacultyofBiotechnology and FoodSciences, SUA Nitra, Slovakia

2. Content • Foodsafety- currentsituation • Role oftheEuropeanFoodSafetyAuthority • RapidAlertSystemforFood and Feed • Adulterationoffoodstuffs • Authenticityoffoods • Examples: caseofhoney

3. Introduction • Food commodities have always been vulnerable to fraudulent admixture or adulteration with cheaper inferior materials. • Economic adulteration is a long-term problem affecting the food industry. • European union protects consumers and producers in terms of quality assurance, food labeling in its laws and necessarymeasures.

4. Severalfoodscandals 1981 “ Toxicoilsyndrome ” : Consumptionofrapeseedoildenaturedwithanilinecausedthedeathofhundredsofpeople 1985: Ethyleneglycol, a frostprotection agent wasadded to winetoupgradeittotable-winequality 1985: Usageofspoilteggs in pasta products Since 1980s: Mad cowdisease 1994: Leadtetroxide in chillipowder 1996 : Synthetic “ applejuice ” concentrate 1999 : Dioxins in feed 2001: Hormones, vaccines and antibiotics in pork 2002 : Antibiotics in honeyfromChina 2003 : Adulteratedwine (extendedwithwater; addedalcohol, coloring, and sugar) fromEasternEurope 2004: Banneddyesused in spices 2013: Meat adulteration scandal in Europe; foods advertised as containing beef were found to contain undeclared horse meat, as much as 100% of the meat content in some cases

5. Foodscandals in V 4 countries • Poland:milk powder contaminated with rodent poison, chicken meat infected with Salmonella, roadsalt in food, antibiotics in honey .... • CzechRepublic: methanol scandal in alcoholic beverages (more than 30 deaths) • Hungary:coloredpork and soldasbeef • Slovakia: yoghurtwithglass...

6. Foodorigin ???? Meat Eggs Eggs from foreign illegal breedwithSalmonella Repackaged and marketed in Slovakia Labelledwiththe Slovak identification • Animalsborn in Holland • Thesameanimalsfed in Slovakia • Slaughtered in Hungary • Meat sold in Slovakia and labelledas „made in EU“

7. FoodSafety is a set ofmeasuresin thefieldofplanthealth, animalhealth and welfareissues, in thefieldoffood and feedproduction, thisisachieved by implementingofsafetyprinciples on allcomponentsofthefoodchain and hencethefinalfood.

8. Hazard Factorswhichcontribute to potentialhazards in foodsincludeimproperagriculturalpractices; • poor hygiene atallstagesofthefoodchain; • lackofpreventivecontrols in foodprocessing and preparationoperations; • misuseofchemicals; • contaminatedrawmaterials, ingredients and water; • inadequate or improperstorage, etc. • Microbiologicalhazards; • Pesticideresidues; • Foodadditives; •Chemicalcontaminants, includingbiologicaltoxins; • Adulteration.... means a biological, chemical or physical agent in, orcondition of, food or feed with the potential to cause an adversehealtheffect;

9. EFSA • TheEuropeanFoodSafetyAuthority (EFSA)isthekeystoneofEuropean Union (EU) risk assessmentregardingfoodandfeedsafety. • EFSA provides independent scientificadviceandclearcommunication on existingandemergingrisks.

10. Aspartame

11. RASFF in the EU and Slovakia - an effective tool to exchange information about measures taken responding to serious risks detected in relation to food or feed.

12. SelectedmembersofRASFF EUROPEAN UNION • European Commission • European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) POLAND -GlównyInspektoratSanitarny (ChiefSanitaryInspectorate) CZECH REPUBLIC - Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority HUNGARY - National Food Chain Safety Office Directorate for Food Safety Risk Assessment

13. Traceability • the ability to trace and follow a food, feed,food-producing animal or substance intended to be, or expectedto be incorporated into a food or feed,through all stages ofproduction, processing and distribution, • can relate tothe origin of materials and parts, the processing history, the distribution and location of the product after delivery, • the standard EAN/GTIN product code has 13 digits. For smaller sized products there is a short version of the EAN/GTIN code the EAN 8

14. In practice, how it works....

15. Adulterated food bythe Food Code • is food, whose appearance, taste, composition, or other attributes has beenchanged and its quality decreased, but is offered to the consumer as the usual food under common name or by other false name. • another definitionoftenused„deliberately placing on the market for financial gain foods that are falsely described or otherwise intended to deceive the consumer“.

16. Food adulteration • In recentyears, there has been a growinginterestamongconsumers in thesafety and traceabilityoffoodproducts. • In particularthereisanincreasingfocus on thegeographicaloriginofrawmaterials and finishedproducts, forseveralreasonsincludingspecificsensoryproperties, perceivedhealthvalues, confidence in locally-producedproducts...

17. Selecteddetectiontechniques

18. Caseofhoney

19. Honey • 40 % oftheEuropeanhoneymarketdepends on imports; whereastheEU’slackofindependenceofhoneysupplyleads to significantvolatility in prices, resultingalsofromadulteration in theglobalmarket, asthepastopeningupofthe EU marketforhoneyfromthirdcountries • Artificialhoneysare productslabeledashoney, maybefraudulentiftheyweremade to simulatehoney, e.g. heatingsucrosewithlacticacid to hydrolyseitto a mixtureofglucose and fructose, withanaqueousextractofcornpollenadded to giveittheflavour and aromaofbeehoney.

20. Prove ofhoneyadulteration • 1. proofofsyrup, sugar ormalt extracts adding, • 2. pollenanalysis, • 3. sugardetermination, • 4. enzymedetermination, • 5. proofofadditives- foodcolorants, etc...