Issue #46 2022-07-11
Waste crime, a mystery food toxicant (the plot thickens!), latest Cronobacter science, chessboard cake magic
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Waste crime in food supply chains
Cronobacter; learn the latest science for free
The unsolved mystery of the mass food poisoning from protein meal toppers – the plot thickens
Just for fun; a magical chocolate chessboard
Food fraud incidents and horizon scanning updates from the past week
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So, waste crime is a thing now! In this issue, I explain what it is, how it affects food supply chains and provide some examples of food fraud linked to waste crime.
Also this week, the fascinating and slightly scary food poisoning outbreak that has landed hundreds of consumers in hospitals in the USA continues to mystify the experts. Extensive testing by multiple parties has failed to find out what caused the illnesses. Worse still, another product could be causing the same problems right now. Some people are pointing the finger at an unusual ingredient found in the implicated foods. Read on to find out what it is and how it could be the source of unknown food safety hazards.
On Wednesday the good folks at the International Association of Food Protection are hosting a free webinar about the most up-to-date scientific knowledge on Cronobacter - that’s the pathogen that has been responsible for all the infant formula recalls lately. I share a link to register for that below.
And finally, a mesmerizing video of a pastry chef performing his magic in the kitchen.
As always, there are extra goodies behind the paywall for paying subscribers. Please join them to support this newsletter and help ensure it can continue.
Thank you!
Karen
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Cover image: Marten Newhall on Unsplash
Food Fraud
Waste Crime and Food Supply Chains
Waste crime is low risk and high profit, according to environmental campaigners in the United Kingdom (UK). But what is it and how is it connected to food supply chains?
Waste crime occurs when criminals in wealthy countries conceal the true nature of waste so they can export it to poor countries to avoid dumping fees. Environmentalists allege that mixed waste and hazardous waste, which are not suitable for recycling, are being misrepresented as recycle-suitable waste on shipping documents as they are exported from the UK.
The UK is one of the biggest exporters of plastic waste; they export around two-thirds of their waste to other countries, mostly poor ones. Under UK law it is illegal to send rubbish to non-OECD countries unless the country has formally requested it. But someone’s not playing by the rules: British waste has been found in commercial quantities in illegal dumps in countries as far afield as Indonesia and Turkey.
Waste hauliers have been linked to food fraud and other food crimes.
Waste companies play an important role in the disposal of food that is out of specification or past its use-by date. When food manufacturers and retailers dispose of such food they require secure disposal so that the food cannot be resold. Unfortunately, if the waste company does not do the right thing, the discarded food can end up in the wrong place.
In 2017, a huge pile of candies/sweets were discovered on the roadside in the United States. The sweets - Skittles - were supposed to be processed into animal feed syrup because they were out of specification. But instead, the waste company allegedly decided to sell them for animal feed without first processing them. A truck accident led to the side-of-road spillage, which alerted the brand owner to the apparent fraud.
Waste handlers can also perpetrate food crimes if they do not correctly dispose of packaging labels and containers. Packaging must be destroyed during disposal so it cannot be misused for producing counterfeit foods and beverages. Waste handlers have also been accused of re-selling expired food that was supposed to be securely dumped.
For example, in February 2022, authorities in Italy discovered a food crime operation in which criminals were repackaging and relabelling large quantities of expired foods including snacks, fruit juices and soft drinks using counterfeit labels of famous brands. In December 2021 people were arrested in Georgia for selling expired meat and pastry that was supposed to be destroyed.
Takeaways
Waste disposal and waste hauling contractors have perpetrated food crimes and can damage food brands if they do the wrong thing with semi-finished products, finished products or unused packaging materials that they are supposed to be dumping.
Food crime prevention activities usually focus on ingredient and product suppliers for food crime risks, however, it is important to also consider potential risks from service providers, including waste handling services.
Sources
https://www.salute.gov.it/portale/news/p3_2_1_2_1.jsp?lingua=italiano&menu=notizie&p=nas&id=2342
https://agenda.ge/en/news/2021/4083
Food Safety
Cronobacter; Learn All The Latest Science
On Wednesday this week, the good folks at the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) are presenting a webinar about the latest insights into Cronobacter. Presenters from Europe, the United Kingdom and South Africa will address Cronobacter epidemiology, ecology, persistence, sampling, prevention, plus methods for detection and identification.
The webinar is free and attendees are invited to submit questions beforehand.
Find out more and register for free here:
Food Safety
The Mysterious Case of the Protein Meal-Toppers – the Plot Thickens
It’s a complete mystery and pretty scary. After almost a month of intense investigations, no one knows how hundreds of people became seriously ill after eating a plant-based protein meal topper in the USA. The product is Daily Harvest French Lentil & Leek Crumbles and a recall is underway. Daily Harvest is a food company that delivers plant-based foods such as smoothies, oat and chia bowls and flatbreads direct to consumers.
I wrote about the food safety risk profile of direct-to-consumer businesses in the context of this outbreak in Issue #44.
Despite extensive product testing, by the food company and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) AND by independent parties, including the food litigation lawyer Bill Marler, no one has yet been able to pinpoint the reason for the illnesses.
Daily Harvest says they have tested for and ruled out these potential causes of the illnesses:
- Hepatitis A
- Norovirus
- Mycotoxins and aflatoxins (a range of these)
- All major bacterial food-borne pathogens
- Contamination with common human food allergens
The FDA says there are 133 adverse illness events and 42 hospitalizations based on consumer complaints and CAERs (adverse event reporting system) reports. However, the lawyer Bill Marler says he has been retained by almost double that number of people who say they were sickened. Some required emergency surgery and had their gallbladders removed. Many are concerned they will have lasting liver damage.
Some consumers allege they got sick from other products, not the one that was recalled.
How come we can’t identify the cause?
Extensive testing of products from the affected batch failed to show up any well-known chemical or microbiological toxicants.
Bill Marler thinks the illnesses could be linked to a little-known ingredient called tara. He says that some of his clients became ill after consuming products other than the recalled product and that these items also contain tara.
The tara theory is gaining traction and is supported by the fact that a smoothie from a different company Revive SuperFoods, which also contains tara, is allegedly causing similar severe illnesses.
The tricky thing about testing food is that you need to know what you are looking for. There is no such thing as a machine that can magically identify poisonous compounds from complex mixtures like multi-ingredient foods. It’s true that analytical machines like mass spectrometers can show “peaks” for various molecules in foods. But with tens of thousands of molecules present in food, it’s almost impossible to know which ingredient might be the source of a “peak” or whether the peak represents molecules from a combination of ingredients or a single ingredient.
In the case of tara, if the ingredient does contain a dangerous toxin, scientists would have to first figure out what that is before they could test for it. I found very few research studies that explored the components of tara or their toxicity, so it’s likely that we just don’t know what to look for yet.
What do we know about tara?
Tara comes from Caesalpinia spinosa, a South American tree that is used for medicinal and food purposes. In mainstream food production, tara gum is used as a thickener and stabiliser, in a similar way to guar gum and locust bean gum. Tara gum is extracted from the seed pods of the tree. Tara gum is an approved food thickener/stabiliser with the food additive number E417. Like guar gum and locust bean gum, tara gum is a galactomannan gum.
Tara protein powder is marketed as a high protein “superfood” and nutritional supplement. Tara protein powder is completely different from tara gum and is not an approved food additive – which doesn’t prevent it from being used as an ingredient in the USA. Suppliers of tara protein powder do not say which part of the tree is used to make it, although it is most likely derived from the leguminous seeds of the tree.
Interestingly, tara is said to be used for a variety of medicinal and pesticidal purposes in Peru which suggests it has strong cytotoxic effects. Tara seed pod extracts are used for heavy industrial processes due to their high concentrations of tannins including quinic acid. The organisation Plants for a Future suggests that the high tannin content in tara pods makes them lethally poisonous to animals that eat them.
How could tara cause illnesses?
It is possible that a batch of the tara ingredient used by Daily Harvest and Revive SuperFoods was unsafe. Perhaps tara’s naturally occurring tannins were present at too-high levels. Or perhaps the process of preparing tara protein powder failed to eliminate the natural toxins that are present in many leguminous seeds. Or perhaps there was a post-processing contamination event, either accidental or as a result of food fraud activities.
Such scenarios are uncommon in food poisoning outbreaks but they have happened before. In 2019, five people died and hundreds were sickened after consuming grain-based food made from soybeans that had been contaminated with the seeds of the poisonous Jimsonweed plant (Datura stramonium).
In short: 🍏 Despite extensive testing, the cause of a massive foodborne illness outbreak remains a mystery 🍏 Victims have been severely sickened with liver disease and some have had gall-bladder surgery 🍏 All well-known chemical and microbiological toxicants plus all major microbial pathogens have been ruled out 🍏 Some commentators are suggesting that an ingredient called tara could be the source of the problems 🍏 Tara gum is an approved food thickener/stabiliser (E417) derived from the seed pods of Caesalpinia spinosa 🍏 Tara protein powder is different to tara gum and is probably derived from the leguminous seeds of the tara tree Caesalpinia spinosa 🍏 Tara seed pods are said to be poisonous to animals and are used for the production of industrial tannins 🍏
Sources
https://www.marlerblog.com/case-news/hey-cdc-and-fda-i-now-have-234-people-you-should-talk-to/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_spinosa
https://www.daily-harvest.com/content/french-lentil-leek-crumbles-advisory?lctg=130824820
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/caesalpinia-spinosa
https://pfaf.org/User/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Caesalpinia+spinosa
https://abbottblackstone.com/product/tara-protein/
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-022-12854-1
Just for Fun
Pastry Chef Magic
Pastry chefs are sugar magicians. The skills! Watch Amaury Guichon prepare an intricate multi-layer chocolate cake that looks exactly like a chess board in this video.
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