Issue #3 2021-08-30
Issue #3 2021-08-30
May contain traces of.... dodgy mushrooms, banned anti-microbials and 100-year-old crackers
Going wild for (very?!) dodgy mushrooms
May contain traces of… FAO/WHO establish threshold levels for human food allergens
Ethylene oxide woes
Just for fun (100 year old crackers, anyone?)
Food fraud incidents and horizon scanning updates from the past week
Hi,
Welcome to Issue 3 of The Rotten Apple, a weekly newsletter for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors.
The worst food authenticity-related thing I read this week was in a research paper about a survey of wild mushrooms. The researchers reported finding potentially toxic species in a package of wild ‘porcini’ mushrooms they purchased online. They even mentioned that a consumer had reported finding a ‘mashed cigarette butt’ in the same product. Nasty! More of their findings are described below.
In better news, the Food and Agriculture Organization has been working to produce recommendations to guide precautionary statements for allergens in food. A report issued this month included recommended reference doses for most of their previously identified priority allergens.
Also this week; a short update on the ethylene oxide recall situation in Europe and a happy birthday message for an American food icon.
As always, this issue ends with a list of food fraud incidents and horizon-scanning news from the past week.
Thanks for reading!
Karen
Food Authenticity
Going wild for (very?!) dodgy mushrooms
Researchers got more than they bargained for when they set out to survey the authenticity of wild mushroom products, using DNA metabarcoding in 2019. Their paper was published earlier this month (link is below).
After finding a piece of mushroom belonging to a probably toxic species in a package of dried ‘porcini’ mushroom they returned to the place of purchase; a ‘large online retail site’. There they discovered that ‘several’ customers had left reviews that claimed the product had made them violently ill. One customer reported that the package they received contained a mashed cigarette butt. The researchers describe how they contacted the retailer to report their findings, but that, by the time of writing their research paper, months later, the product remained on sale.
The survey was of sixteen products that claimed to contain wild mushrooms. The products were purchased from local supermarkets (Utah, USA) and a large online retailer and included dried mushrooms, mushroom powder, soup mixes, pasta sauces and flavour enhancers.
Among many findings, the most concerning to me is the results for products that were labelled as ‘porcini’ mushrooms. Most of those products contained either cultivated species such as button mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, shiitake or they contained wild-collected, non-porcini species.
Some dried mushroom products contained species that were not accounted for on the label. One sample of dried ‘porcini’ mushroom contained a piece of mushroom that the researchers identified as a species that is probably poisonous. The species present in that sample are only found in Asia.
In short: 🍏 DNA metabarcoding proved useful for species identification in various mushroom products 🍏 Inedible and potentially toxic species were found in some products 🍏 Purchasers of ‘wild’ mushrooms should be wary of deliberate and/or accidental mislabelling of species and wild-foraged-status 🍏
Read more: https://peerj.com/articles/11747/
Food Safety
May Contain Traces of…
Traces of allergens in foods; how much is too much? It’s a problem that is increasingly causing headaches for food manufacturers. The number of allergic consumers is rising, awareness of allergens in food is also increasing. Undeclared allergens in foods make a up a significant proportion of recalls in many countries.
It’s difficult to establish ‘safe’ levels of allergens in food, because of the differing levels of sensitivity among allergic people. But the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) are giving it a try.
They established an expert committee and scheduled three meetings that will make up an ad hoc Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on Risk Assessment of Food Allergens.
The aims are to:
- Establish the threshold levels for ‘priority allergens’ below which the majority of allergic consumers would not suffer an adverse reaction;
- Choose appropriate analytical methods and minimum performance criteria for those methods;
- Provide guidance on precautionary labelling.
So far, the expert committee has had two of their three planned meetings. In the first meeting they decided on the priority allergens. In meeting two they chose their preferred approach for establishing threshold levels for those allergens of concern and provided provisional recommendations for reference doses for some of the priority allergens. Meeting three, the final meeting, is scheduled for October 2021.
The priority allergens are: Cereals containing gluten, crustacea, eggs, fish, milk, peanuts, sesame, specific tree nuts (almond, cashew, hazelnut, pecan, pistachio and walnut).
The thresholds are being decided using a benchmark dose plus probabilistic hazard assessment approach. That’s instead of using ‘analytical-based’ or ‘no observed adverse effect level’ methods.
The recommended reference doses for some of the allergens have been chosen and are published in the report for meeting 2. They range from 1.0 mg total protein from the allergenic source for some tree nuts to 5.0 mg for wheat and fish. Shrimp is the outlier, with the recommended reference dose being 200 mg. References for milk and sesame have not yet been decided upon.
In short: 🍏 The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations plus the World Health Organisation are deciding on reference doses for major human food allergens, to aid with precautionary labelling. 🍏 The FAO/WHO guidance should be useful for food regulators and food manufacturers who need clarity on how much (undeclared) allergenic material is ‘too much’ in food. 🍏 To date, the priority allergens have been chosen and reference dose recommendations have been published for some of those allergens 🍏
Read more:
Meeting 1: http://www.fao.org/3/cb4653en/cb4653en.pdf (note this is a direct-download pdf link)
Meeting 2: http://www.fao.org/3/cb6388en/cb6388en.pdf (note this is a direct-download pdf link)
Food Authenticity
Ethylene Oxide Woes
The number of European products affected by ethylene oxide contamination continues to grow. Ethylene oxide, a food disinfectant that is widely used in some countries but not allowed in European food was found in sesame seeds from India in September 2020. The affected sesame seeds were used in a large number of products, resulting in multiple recalls.
According to Food Safety News (link below) the ethylene oxide had been used on the sesame seeds to reduce Salmonellae contamination.
Residues of ethylene oxide have now been found in locust bean gum, a food additive used as a thickener in products including confectionary and ice cream.
The consumer safety group Food Watch is concerned that some European member states are considering relaxing the recall rules for some affected products.
In short: 🍏 European regulators continue to find products that contain ethylene oxide residues 🍏 Ethylene oxide has been used to treat ingredients in their country of origin, but this has not been declared to purchasers 🍏 Ethylene oxide is banned in Europe (and elsewhere) 🍏 Recalls of food products that contain the affected ingredients are continuing 🍏
Read more: RASFF Portal: https://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/rasff-food-and-feed-safety-alerts/rasff-portal_en
Food Safety News: https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2021/07/ethylene-oxide-scandal-spreads-to-food-additive/ and https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2021/08/ethylene-oxide-recalls-dominate-report/
Consumer safety group commentary: https://www.foodwatch.org/en/news/2021/toxic-ethylene-oxide-in-foods/
Just for Fun
A cultural food icon celebrates 100 years
The Cheez-It was launched in 1921 by an American company that supplied hardtack (bread-like crackers) to the US Army during World War 1. The savoury crackers were a new food type when launched. The company, Green & Green, even filed several patents to protect technology associated with the crispness of the products.
The Cheez-It was modelled on the welsh rarebit, which is a dish of hot cheese sauce served on toasted bread.
According to one commentator (source below), if you lined up every individual Cheez-It sold in a single year, they would reach to the moon and back. Twice.
🍏 Happy Birthday, Cheez-Its 🍏
Read more:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/brief-history-cheez-it-180977777/
https://historianandrew.medium.com/the-history-of-american-snack-legend-cheez-its-229e02e91d4c
Food Fraud Incidents and Horizon Scanning
Food fraud incidents added to the Food Fraud Risk Information Database in the past week
Garlic plants worth $3000 have been stolen from a farm. The victims suspect they will be used by the theives to start a new garlic farm - Canada https://www-cbc-ca.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6136105
A man has been arrested after a tip off; he was adding water to packaged millk, then re-packing it - India https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thane/thane-man-held-for-milk-adulteration-in-mira-road/articleshow/85647834.cms
A survey of products that claimed to contain wild mushrooms, including mushroom powder, soup mixes, pasta sauces, and purchased from local supermarkets and an online retailer (n = 16), found many discrepancies between labels and contents, including potentially dangerous mushroom species in at least one product. 'Wild' dried porcini were the worst affected in this study - USA https://peerj.com/articles/11747/
More than 70 people are being investigated or have been charged with food fraud related offences in relation to marketing of pistachio nuts as 'organic' when they are alleged to have been conventionally grown - Spain and France https://www.freshplaza.com/article/9349587/spain-s-main-nut-marketer-investigated-for-alleged-food-fraud/
Other updates to the Food Fraud Risk Information Database in the past week
Wheat
The price of durum wheat is soaring after poor harvests in Canada and Europe due to drought. This increases the risk of food fraud for durum wheat.
https://www.processalimentaire.com/ingredients/la-flambee-des-cours-du-ble-dur-inquiete-les-pastiers
Corn/Maize and Soy and Animal Feed
The United States Department of Agriculture has reduced its predicted yields for corn and soybean for 2021, prompting price rises for both commodities. This may increase the likelihood of food fraud affecting corn and soy used for food and feed.
https://www.feedstrategy.com/business-markets/corn-prices-rise-again-after-usda-cuts-crop-estimates/
Coffee
The cost of coffee beans has soared nearly 43 percent in the USA in 2021. Extreme weather in the world's largest coffee exporter, Brazil, plus politcal unrest in Colombia and shipping bottlenecks are to blame. Higher prices are likely to be felt throughout the intenrational coffee supply chain.
Sesame Oil
China's market regulator is warning consumers to pay attention to the authenticity of sesame oil. It has issued a formal statement educating consumers that authentic sesame oil must not contain other oils and that products containing sesame and other oils are supposed to be labelled 'blended vegetable oil'. It recommends that sesame oil be purchased in pre-packaged format from reputable vendors rather than onlin retailers. It also warns of potential food safety and authenticity risks from 'fresh-pressed' sesame oil sold at market stalls. 23/08/2021