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impactlab_2010 02495.txt

#FDA Pressured to Take on Food Fraud Of the hundreds of customers who bought 10 million pounds of mislabeled Vietnamese catfish including national chains and top rated restaurants nly one or two caught the deception The expensive oesheeps milk cheese in a Manhattan market was made really from cows milk. And a jar of oesturgeon caviar was, in fact, Mississippi paddlefish. Some honey makers dilute their honey with sugar beets or corn syrup, their competitors say, but still market it as 100 percent pure at a premium price. And last year, a Fairfax man was convicted of selling 10 million pounds of cheap frozen catfish fillets from Vietnam as much more expensive grouper, red snapper and flounder. The fish was bought by national chain retailers, wholesalers and food service companies, and ended up on dinner plates across the country. oefood fraud has been documented in fruit juice, olive oil, spices, vinegar, wine, spirits and maple syrup, and appears to pose a significant problem in the seafood industry. Victims range from the shopper at the local supermarket to multimillion companies, including E&j Gallo and Heinz USA. Such deception has been happening since Roman times, but it is getting new attention as more products are imported and a tight economy heightens competition. And the U s. food industry says federal regulators are not doing enough to combat it. oeits growing very rapidly, and theres more of it than you might think, said James Morehouse, a senior partner at A t. Kearney Inc, . which is studying the issue for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents the food and beverage industry. John Spink, an expert on food and packaging fraud at Michigan State university, estimates that 5 to 7 percent of the U s. food supply is affected but acknowledges the number could be greater. oewe know what we seized at the border, but we have no idea what we didnt seize, he said. The job of ensuring that food is labeled accurately largely rests with the Food and Drug Administration. But it has been overwhelmed in trying to prevent food contamination and fraud has remained on a back burner. The recent development of high-tech tools including DNA testing has made it easier to detect fraud that might have gone unnoticed a decade ago. DNA can be extracted from cells of fish and meat and from other foods, such as rice and even coffee. Technicians then identify the species by comparing the DNA to a database of samples. Another tool, isotope ratio analysis, can determine subtle differences between food whether a fish was farmed or wild, for example, or whether caviar came from Finland or a U s. stream. The techniques have become so accessible that two New york city high school students working with scientists at the Rockefeller University and the American Museum of Natural history last year, discovered after analyzing DNA in 11 of 66 foods including the sheeps milk cheese and caviar bought randomly at markets in Manhattan were mislabeled. oewe put so much emphasis on food and purity of ingredients and where they come from, said Mark Stoeckle, a physician and DNA expert at Rockefeller University who advised the students. oebut then there are things selling that are not what they say on the label. Theres an important issue here in terms of economics and consumer safety. Continue reading Washington post Share Thissubscribedel. icio. usfacebookredditstumbleupontechnorati b

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