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Monday 9 July 2018 8:32pm

Food-adulteration-image
The National Isotope Centre's Dr Karyne Rogers and Otago’s Professor Russell Frew, of the Department of Chemistry, work on a food adulteration detection method at Mellor Laboratories.

Giving consumers confidence in the safety and origin of their food is just one of the benefits of a recent Otago-led food authentication course.

A group of 22 scientists from across the Asia-Pacific region attended a training course on chemical techniques for authenticating food at Otago’s Mellor Laboratories last month.

Professor Russell Frew of Chemistry is the lead coordinator for the four-year project, funded by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and ran the group through lecture and practical sessions.

The scientists learnt chemical techniques to authenticate and detect adulteration in various food materials, such as honey, cereal, rice, dairy products and tea.

"This project is the most logical strategy to achieve and sustain regional skills, coordination of activities and ‘world’s best-practice’ verification of authenticity analysis."

Professor Frew says food safety and quality are vital aspects of food security and that, if a food safety incident arises, questions of origin are among the first to be asked.

The increase of global trade, complexity of supply chains, and premium prices being paid for some commodities, have increased the incidence of fraudulent food; for example in the origin of honey and water.

“One of the primary tools for ensuring food safety is a traceability system, which provides consumers with confidence their food comes from a supplier with appropriate food safety and quality measures.

“However, all such systems can be subject to fraud so a system which can verify food origin, and audit the traceability control systems, is needed,” he says.

Such technology is still being developed, but this project will result in: the establishment of a regional consortium of scientists and end-users to strengthen cooperation; the establishment of agreed and harmonised standards, protocols and procedures; and develop a web database for archiving information for the region.

“This project is the most logical strategy to achieve and sustain regional skills, co-ordination of activities and ‘world’s best-practice’ verification of authenticity analysis.

“The ultimate beneficiaries will be consumers, through enhanced confidence that the food they purchase is authentic and so adheres to the required food safety regulations,” he says.

The scientists were in New Zealand until 7 July. They will participate with a larger group for further advanced training courses in Sri Lanka, Thailand, and China over the next three years.

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