EDERAL INSTITUTE

OR RISK ASSESSMENT

Methods to combat food fraud a German perspective

Reiner Wittkowski

REGULATION (EC) No 178/2002

General principles and requirements of food law, establishing
the European Food Safety Authority and laying down
procedures in matters of food safety

Article 8
Protection of consumers' interests
1. Food law shall aim at the protection of the interests of
consumers and shall provide a basis for consumers to make
informed choices in relation to the foods they consume. It shall
aim at the prevention of:
(a) fraudulent or deceptive practices;
(b) the adulteration of food; and
(c) any other practices which may mislead the consumer.

Initial situation - food fraud

The probability of malpractice and white collar crime increases with

misdirected economic incentives
It decreases with protective factors (bonds of moral norms)
Food fraud is often highly profitable but causes only minimal damage to
the individual consumer or damage occurs with large time delays
Risk based controls fall too short to combat behavioural risk sources

Source: Schreiber, BVL, 200

Examples of food fraud

Boiled ham with added water and starch

Meat with added hydrolysates of proteins (binding water)

Rotten meat or meat exceeding the best before date (BBD)

Faked certificates

False appearance of higher protein contents (addition of melamine)

Imports under false CN code to fake origin or to fall under

lower custom tariff

Alcoholic beverages with methanol

Food supplements, in particular those traded via internet

(composition, addition of drugs)

Mechanically recovered meat not labelled

Source: Schreiber, BVL, 200

National food monitoring-2006

rejected probes in %

Violations in food probes (2006)

50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

47

16

15
11

11

microbial contamination

other contamination

pathogen
germs e.g.

mycotoxins
acrylamid,
pesticides

complete n= 407.815

composition

forged products
deceiving descriptions
false ingredients

labelling/presentation

misleading
package

number of rejected probes n= 62.156

other

illegal radiation,
violation against
trading classification

How many consumers can be fed

from one slaughtered pig ?

~ 100 kg live weight

~ 80 kg slaughtered weight
~ 48 kg meat
sold meat 50 %
24 kg
supplies:
66 slices steak
46 slices cutlet
28 slices Kamm
and more

processing 50 %
24 kg
supplies:
240 Sausages
(30 % pork)

more than 380 consumers

Strategies to combat food fraud in Germany

Focal point analytical methods
Food profiling / Food finger-printing
Authenticity control (e.g, wine, asparagus, pistachios)
Quantitative and qualitative detection of genetically-modified
organisms including food and feed products
Declaration of ingredients (product composition) and
analytical control of composition

TRACE - TRACING FOOD COMMODITIES IN EUROPE

http://www.trace.eu.org/

INTEGRATED PROJECT in the

SIXTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME
PRIORITY 5: Food Quality and Safety

WP 3 Species Origin Methods (SOM) - BfR Workpackage Leader

Objectives of SOM (Species Origin Methods)

To develop traceability methods and systems that will provide

consumers with added confidence in the authenticity of European food
The development of cost effective tools for verifying the
origin and the authenticity of food is the key role
SOM aims to characterise food products on the basis of DNA
or protein detection methods
SOM aims to standardise DNA based methods within Europe
by inter-laboratory studies

Summary- TRACE

Integrated traceability systems are being developed for

the food industry that can verify:
Geographical origin
Production origin
Species origin

Example - Authenticity control of pistachios

pistachios are popular snacks in
German trade

Aflatoxine in Iran pistachios

1997 import-stop
strictly EU-import regulations

false declaration???

Authenticity control necessary

One Solution
Authenticity control of pistachios based on 1H- and 13C-NMR spectroscopy

- Different climatic conditions in producing regions

- Influence of climatic conditions on fatty acid composition
- Pistachios content 56 - 59 % fatty acid
- NMR-Spektroscopy of oil
determination of botanical origin

- Extraction of pistachio oil

- Measuring with NMR
-Making correlation between NMR-signals and
fatty-acid structures
- Statistical analysis of signals

statistic

32
33
34
35

1
Probe
PIS01971
PIS01972
PIS01978
PIS01253

2
Herkunft
Iran
Iran
Iran
USA

3
4
5
Flche_1 Flche_2 Flche_3
2,693
16,218
1,685
2,652
16,709
1,681
2,761
16,939
1,760
2,698
16,809
1,751

Authenticity control of pistachios by NMR

of pistachios

12

Root 2

wrongly labelled

USA

USA
Iran

Turkey

Turkey
0
USA

USA

Heier 2006, PhD. thesis

USA
-4
Turkey

Iran

Root 1

-8
-8

-4

Zur et al 2007, Eur. Food Res. Tech.

12

16

Summary- Authenticity control of pistachios

1H-NMR-Spectroscopy and 13C-NMR-Spectroscopy

of pistachio oil is a suitable method to determine the
regional authenticity of pistachios

Stable isotope analysis is also suitable for detection o

the origin
first studies shows - 6 of 103 samples are falsely
declarated
authenticity control of pistachios is urgently necessary

Example - Authenticity control of wine

EU 5th Framework
Contract No.: G6RD-CT-2001-00646-WINE-DB

Time frame
01-04-2002 - 31-12-2006

EU- Research Project: (WINE DB project) Establishing of a Wine Data

Bank for Analytical Parameters for Wines from Third Countries
Project consortium
1

Bundesinstitut fr Risikobewertung, Berlin, Germany

Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, Ispra, Italy

Central Scientific Laboratories - Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries

and Food, York, Great Britain

Eurofins Scientific, Nantes, France

Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Brussels, Belgium

Technische Universitt Berlin, Berlin, Germany

University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy

Czech Customs Technical Laboratory, Prague, Czech Republic

Universitatea de Stiinte Agricole si Medicina Veterinara - Laboratorul

de Oenologie, Iasi, Romania

10

National Institute for Wine Qualification, Budapest, Hungary

ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij
(Agricultural Research
Council )

Australian Wine
Research Institute

Wine regions of the wine producing countries

Wine regions
of Romania
Wine regions of the Czech Republic

Wine regions
of South Africa

Wine regions of Hungary

Wine regions of
Australia

Discriminating plots for Hungary, Czech Republic,

Romania, Australia, South Africa one vintage
All authentic wines
Model 1 (8 var.)
Parameter = 0,28
8
7
6
5
4

Root 2

3
2
1
0
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
-10

-8

-6

-4

-2

Czech Republic
Hungary
Romania
South Africa
Australia

Root 1

All authentic wines (second year vintage) from the 5 countries

(Isotopes, Australia/South Africa V)

Conclusions (complex data, difficult to extract)

Discriminators for authentic and commercial wines are
different:
Authentic wines (Stable isotopes, Vanadium, Chromium).
Commercial wines (Strontium, Ethanol(D/H)2, Zinc, Titanium,
Calcium and to a lesser extent Wine 18O and Chlorine, all macro
elements!)
Oenological treatments seem to mask element composition

Very few are stable over vintages:

Stable parameters of the authentic wines:
Propanol-1, Methylpropanol, Li and Cu are stable (at least in three
European countries)
Stable parameters of the commercial wines:
Invert sugar, Tartaric acid, P, Ti, V, Cr, Co, Cu, Zn, As, Y, U, La,
Gd, Er, Yb, Gd/Er, Er/Yb

EU Research Project ISOSTER

Determination of endogenous and exogenous origin of steroids in

Long term aim

Project partner
BfR (Koordinator)
DSHS (Kln)
LABERCA (Nantes)
cattle CSL (York)
TNO (Zeist)
QUB (Belfast)
Dionex (Idstein)
ThermoElectron (Bremen

Food Control laboratories should be given a tool for the

control of the administration of natural steroid hormones
as growth promoting agents in food production.
The usual sampling locations of Food Control determine
the choice of the matrix for analysis:
live stocks

urine, faeces

slaughter houses

urine, faeces, fat, offal,

muscle
muscle, fat

borders

EU Researchproject ISOSTER
Determination of endogenous and exogenous origin of steroids in

Objective

Project partner
BfR (Koordinator)
DSHS (Kln)
LABERCA (Nantes)
cattle
CSL (York)
TNO (Zeist)
QUB (Belfast)
Dionex (Idstein)
ThermoElectron (Bremen

Preparation of authentic samples from animals with known history

kept under controlled farm conditions.
Development of methods for the determination of the 13C values of
steroids in different substrate
Assessment of the effectiveness of the GC-C-IRMS technique to
differentiate between the endogenous and exogenous origin of
steroids in cattle.

Results: Isoster Project

Methods gives excellent and validated results with high sensitivity
Differentiation between the endogenous and exogenous origin
of steroids is possible
But Method is very complex and expensive
Finally, the method will improve the situation in the food-control laboratories
by delivering doubtless results which can be submitted to the courts
__________________________________
At the moment it is not possible to use the method routinely
There is now legal appointment to use the method

Quantitative and Qualitative GMO-Detection

Thresholds (Reg (EC) No. 1829/2003)
Introduction of a threshold of 0.9 %
Food (and feed) containing material which contains, consists of or
is produced from GMOs in a proportion no higher than 0,9 % of
the food ingredients considered individually or food consisting of a
single ingredient, provided that this presence is adventitious or
technically unavoidable.
Introduction of a threshold of 0.5 % for the presence of
adventitious or technically unavoidable GMO, which are not
authorized in the EU, but have an authorization with a positive risk
assessment of a country outside EU

Detection strategies
Raw material

processed
product

target

method

Soya

DNA
DNA

Polymerase
Polymerase
chain
chain
reaction
reaction(PCR)
(PCR)

Maize

Protein
Protein

Immuno
Immunoassays
assays

Rape
seed

Fatty
Fattyacid
acid

(HPLC/GC)
(HPLC/GC)

Detection limit (LOD) DNA detection

PCR: app. 10 genome copies
correspond to 0.05% GM material
- depending from processing
- need for calculation of the practical LOD for each sample
under investigation

Decrease of sensitivity:
fragmentation
Elimination

EU Project MOLSPEC-ID GOALS

Fraud aspect
Soybean
Cattle
Pig
Peanut
Sheep
Wheat
Goat
Rye
Chicken
Barley
Turkey
Duck
Pea
Ostrich
Celery
Horse
Walnut
Deer
Hazelnut
Kangaroo
Crab
Almond
Allergenicity aspect

Used databases in food inspection (germany)

asparagus

authenticity control

stable isotope
technique

wine
(EU-Wine DB,
Third Country DB)

authenticity control

stable isotope
technique

anthocyan DB
shikimisure DB
apple juice

HPLC
HPLC

authenticity control

stable isotope
technique

Summary
New analytical methods are ready for use and will be helpful in
combatting food fraud
At the moment, most of the methods are too expensive and
complex to use for routine control
It is necessary to improve the legal framework.
Improvement of analytical methods is only one instrument
in the combat against food fraud.

The probability of malpractice and white collar crime in the

food sector increases with misdirected economic incentives,
i. e. the expected profit it is able to produce. It decreases with
protective factors, i. e. the bonds to moral norms that prevent
producers from giving way to economic temptations.
Die Gefahr, dass Akteure auf verschiedenen Stufen der
Nahrungsproduktion zu ihrem eigenen Vorteil gegen Vorschriften
verstoen, ist umso grer, je hher der erwartete Gewinn ist (fehlgeleitete
konomische Anreize). Die Gefahr sinkt, je mehr die Akteure durch
protektive Faktoren (z. B. erwartete Negativreaktionen des sozialen
Nahfeldes oder eigene moralische Wertvorstellungen) dagegen
immunisiert sind, einer konomischen Verlockung nachzugeben.

N. Hirschauer, S. Scheerer und S. Zwoll

Journal of Consumer Protection and Food Safety
2 (2007): 259.271

EDERAL INSTITUTE
OR RISK ASSESSMENT

Thank you for your attention

Reiner Wittkowski
Federal Institute for Risk Assessment
Thielallee 88-92

D-14195 Berlin

Tel. +49 30 - 84 12 - 0
bfr@bfr.bund.de

Fax +49 30 - 84 12 - 47 41

www.bfr.bund.de