Showing posts with label horse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label horse. Show all posts

Friday, March 8, 2013

Food Fraud - Horse Meat, Seafood, Honey, etc

With the recent discovery of horse meat in beef sold in Europe, there is an increased awareness of food fraud, the illegal substitution of one food item for another for economic gain. In some cases, it is a straight substation, while in others, it is addition of a filler. In some cases, it may be removal. (Removal would be used when there is chemical that would otherwise render the product unusable such as the removing of antibiotics from honey).
 
While there are been minimal food safety risks to this point, it does raise concerns about traceability and even food defense. Certainly an exception to this was the melamine contamination of wheat gluten that was used in pet foods. In this case, the industrial chemical melamine was added to wheat gluten to increase the level of ‘detectable protein’.  
 
Last month an advocacy group reported that up to 1/3 of seafood sold in restaurants may be mislabeled. One interesting example was that the fish species Escolar was being labeled as white tuna. Problem is that Escolar is the Ex-lax of the seafood world and can result in explosive diarrhea when eaten in large quantities. 
 
Other products that are subject to food fraud include 
 
USP has a Food Fraud Database that links to numerous studies.
 
  
 
Food Fraud: Are Your Ingredients At Risk?
 Wed, 03/06/2013 - 2:17pm
 Lindsey Jahn, Associate Editor, Food Manufacturing
 
 Food fraud is on the rise across the globe, and it is impacting all forms of products — from milk and olive oil to seafood and beef. While some cases of food fraud are due to the efforts of unscrupulous processors, some honest food companies are unknowingly producing items containing fraudulent ingredients.
 
Europe’s meat industry has been in crisis mode since Ireland announced that at least one-third of frozen “beef” burgers produced in the country contained traces — or sometimes much more than traces — of horsemeat. Since then, horsemeat has been detected in many European meat products, from Ikea’s signature Swedish meatballs to prepared meals produced by Nestle.
  
So far, no horsemeat has been detected in the U.S. food supply. But the U.S. food industry is no stranger to other types of food fraud. The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) maintains a Food Fraud Database which identifies cases of food fraud occurring in the U.S. The USP in January released its most recent update to the database, which added almost 800 new records of food fraud, increasing the total number of records published in the database by 60 percent.
  

Thursday, March 7, 2013

No Horse Meat in US Beef Supply

Some people seem to worry too much about US food supply, but unlike Europe, there has been no horse meat detected in our beef supply. A few interesting notes:
  • Horse meat does not pose a food safety risk, but is more of a perception issue by consumers.
  • From a food safety perspective, the EU horse meat scandal is more of a ‘traceability’ issue for those companies involved.  
  • In Europe, there were many suppliers and many middleman involved as meat was sourced from various countries in Europe. The testing of meat continues. A table of test results - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-21412590 
  • It is once again legal to slaughter horses in the US, but currently, no US facilities are doing so. And FSIS does not allow imported horse meat. 
  • In 2010, some 137,000 horses were sent from the US to Mexico and Canada to be slaughtered.
  • Meat testing is done primarily by DNA testing using PCR methodology. ELISA technology (using antibodies) is also used, but is not as effective for processed meat products.
 
 
U.S. officials: No horse meat in our beef
 The U.S. has not become embroiled in the horse meat scandal in Europe
Elizabeth Weise7:42p.m. EST March 1, 2013 USA Today
 
The horse meat scandal in Europe keeps getting bigger but U.S. officials say it's unlikely there's any horse meat hidden in U.S. meat products.
 
Genetic tests have found ground horse meat in beef in Ireland, Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic. On Friday Taco Bell outlets in Britain found traces of the meat in what was supposed to be 100% beef. The company has removed all beef products from its menu in the United Kingdom.
 
There is no link between Taco Bell suppliers in Europe and the United States, the company said.
 
How the horse meat entered the European food supply is unknown.