Counterfeit Products and How to Detect Them
This Parmesan cheese is actually wooden, that honey has corn syrup in it and the cake is a lie. There is no guarantee that the food you buy from the store is up to the mark, so keep an eye out for these common suspects if you don’t want to waste your money on fake, low-quality items.
The distribution and sale of counterfeit food is officially known as economically motivated counterfeiting (EMA), a subcategory of food fraud. The EMA can be anything from changing the weight of a product by adding a lower quality ingredient to forging a product label. Diluting fruit juice with water, adding chemicals to increase the protein content of food, and changing the shelf life on meat labels are all good examples. These actions are, of course, illegal and potentially hazardous to health, but the problem is widespread and difficult for the government to control. In fact, according to the United States Pharmacopoeia Convention (USP), about 7% of products in grocery stores across the country contain counterfeit ingredients. Here are the most common criminals.
Parmesan cheese
If you pay a high price for a decent parmesan cheese, you might think this is exactly what you get. But the FDA has been battling fake Parmesan cheese for years. In many cases, the FDA has found companies making a shilling of “100% real” Parmesan with fillers such as wood pulp, cellulose, and super cheap cheddar. In fact, FDA analysis suggests there is no real Parmesan cheese in Target’s Market Pantry brand . The same goes for the Always Save and Best Choice 100% grated Parmesan cheese , which are sold in 30 different states and contain mostly mozzarella, white cheddar and cellulose.
If you need a real deal, Liz Thorpe , author of “Handbook of cheeses” Murray and “The Chronicles of cheese” , recommends buying a piece of cheese from a wheel with the words “Parmigiano Reggiano” on the skin:
Parmigiano Reggiano is a legally protected designation of origin used in Europe only for Italian cheeses. The beauty of this cheese is that you can always know that you are getting a real product because the name “Parmigiano Reggiano” is stamped on its rind in an unmistakable dot pattern.
This means going to a grocery store in a supermarket or specialty store and then grate or grind the cheese yourself. Also pay attention to the price. Parmesan is expensive because it takes a lot of time and a lot of milk to prepare. If it’s super cheap, it’s a red flag. This applies to everything on this list. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Olive oil
Olive oil is counterfeited in many ways so that distributors can make money. As Tom Mueller of The New Yorker explains , scammers will dilute olive oil with cheaper oils like vegetable oil, mistakenly label olive oil as extra virgin when it isn’t, or lie about the origin of the oil by saying the oil was made in Italy. when it is truly a blended batch of oils from all over the Mediterranean. Major Sergio Tirro of the Italian Carabinieri and one of Europe ‘s leading food fraud investigators has demonstrated how easy it is to counterfeit olive oil in 60 minutes . A dash of sunflower oil, a few drops of chlorophyll, and a dash of beta-carotene are all it takes to make a passable fake. In fact, according to Mueller estimated that up to 75% of olive oil in the US falsified or improperly labeled, and a study consisting of two parts, conducted by the Center of olive oil the University of California at Davis, suggests that 73% of the samples of the five top-selling imported “extra” brands Extra virgin olive oils in the USA – Bertolli, Carapelli, Colavita, Star, Pompeian – did not meet the standards of the International Olive Council .
Fortunately, there are several things you can do when buying olive oil. First, take note of the harvest date on the label . Bottles of olive oil without a harvest date may be fake or from very old batches that distributors are trying to unload. Second, look for the seal of approval from the local or regional authority where it was poured. This type of certification proves that the oil is exactly where it is stated and that the product is not a mixture of different oils. Just because a bottle of olive oil has an Italian flag doesn’t mean it was made there . Also, as Guy Campanil explains in 60 Minutes , check if the city of origin is mentioned in addition to the country. You can easily check if the area is known for olive oil production by searching on Google. Finally, check the label for the type of olive oil or the type of olives used. If they don’t put them on the bottle, it doesn’t bode well for the quality of the olive oil inside.
Spices
As explained in the video above from ABC News , the USP found that imported spices like saffron, black pepper, and peppercorns are usually cut with cheap fillings. Saffron is incredibly expensive, so scammers often add dried safflower, dyed onions, and turmeric to boost their profits. And since almost all of the saffron is imported into the United States , regulating what may be in it is more difficult. Ground black pepper is mixed with ground papaya seeds, buckwheat flower and black pepper stalks . And the peppers imported from Hungary used to be sliced with white pepper, kuruma and even brick powder .
The most effective way to avoid counterfeiting is to buy whole spices. Find whole peppercorns, saffron strands, and whole dried peppers , then chop them yourself. Don’t worry, grinding whole spices to their usual sizes is n’t as difficult as it sounds. One teaspoon of whole peppers equals one and a half teaspoons of ground, saffron can be used whole or ground to taste, and a batch of freshly ground paprika lasts eight months . Just make sure you don’t sell questionable prepackaged foods at the dollar store and shop from local dealers or online sellers who specialize in bulk condiments .
Honey
Honey is an easy target for EMAs because it’s so sweet. Some distributors add cheap bulking agents to the mix , such as high fructose corn syrup or rice sugar . Others filter the product to remove pollen , making it difficult to determine if a product is pure honey or not . Filtering honey doesn’t necessarily mean it’s fake, but it is possible that you are just eating sugar syrup. There is also a risk that the cheap honey you bought from the market is exported from a country with lax food safety laws , such as China. Not all Chinese honey is dangerous, but there have been problems in the past and you probably have local apiaries that need your support.
If possible, buy honey from trusted sources such as your local farmers market, community market, or local honey at your grocery store. Otherwise, Bee America recommends a couple of simple tests you can do at home to make sure store honey is legal. Spread honey on a piece of bread and let sit for a few minutes. If the honey crystallizes and the top of the bread becomes crunchy, this is real. If it gets wet, then it is a fake. You can also taste honey in water. Put a teaspoon of honey in a glass of water and see if it settles on the bottom. If this does not happen, and it dissolves easily in water without mixing, this is not all honey, honey.
Fish and seafood
Do you know the difference betweenking mackerel and sea bass ? Or how does escolar differ from albacore ? How about seeing only meat? Probably not, which is why many seafood in the US is prone to so-called “species swapping.” This happens in restaurants and grocery stores where you might think you are buying expensive wild-caught red snapper when you do get cheap, mass-grown tilapia . One study by Oceana and the National Seafood Inspection Laboratory found that about 33% of the fish they sampled were not of the species consumers believed in. This is problematic when cheaper or unwanted high-mercury species are replaced with safer or more expensive fish. Not to mention, you are not getting what you paid for. It’s even harder to tell when all you see is decorated cuts of meat . However, this type of food fraud is difficult to preventbecause only 2% of imported fish is FDA tested .
Fortunately, you can still get an education and make informed purchasing decisions. The FDA maintains a regularly updated list of seafood that can be eaten , as well as details of the fish and the names they are allowed to use when sold. As Oceana campaign manager Beth Lowell explains, identifying fish by fillets alone is nearly impossible, even for experts. This is why the Environmental Defense Fund recommends that you watch out for these red flags when you shop:
- The price is too good to be true for a fish as coveted as red bass or sea bass.
- Off-season fish such as wild salmon from Alaska are sold “fresh” in winter.
- Wacky labels that you know are not true, such as “farmed Chilean seabass” (only fished in the wild) or “wild Atlantic salmon” (endangered species, not commercially available).
If anything about the fish seems suspicious, contact your chef or fish vendor for information. They should be able to tell you what kind of fish it is, where it came from, and answer any questions you may have. If they can’t or seem insecure, buy fish elsewhere. You should stick to reputed safe suppliers, importers, restaurants and retailers who are members of the Seafood Improvement Council. Before you eat, find out your seafood and its origins.
Update: Oceana’s stats are based on 1,200 seafood samples taken from 674 different retailers in 21 states, not necessarily all fish sold in the US. Minor changes have been made to this article to clarify this.