El food fraud it is a more common thing than we think, we discover nothing by saying it. Perhaps a distinction should be made between the frauds themselves of the picaresque and "minor" deceptions. Also of the legal regulations that allow some sector to take advantage of the fame or nomenclatures that confuse the national or international consumer. These are difficult to understand. We must recognize that this happens, to a greater or lesser extent, in many parts of the world. Of course, the seriousness depends largely on the prestige and the country's brand.
Also in coffee and tea
El food fraud it is also common in products that come from remote places and are used very daily. This is the case with coffee and tea. The paradox arises that although there are years of scarce harvests, the commercialized tons of these origins do not decrease.
To carry out greater control and monitoring of all this in Britain A study is being carried out with the aim of obtaining the trace of the origin of each the. All with the aim of being able to check your traceability and its origin since fraud does not stop growing. In the case of tea, it accentuates. Being a sheet, they are directly used by many pesticides that are not always authorized and controlled.
Regarding the coffee the problems are recurrent since before reaching the consumer, mixtures and roasting and grinding treatments are carried out that give rise to the food fraud. A market that is very difficult to control both due to its composition and food safety controls, its origins, and its subsequent handling.
Iberian pork products: food fraud continues
Taking advantage of the great name of Iberian pig and from their acorn feeding, staphases are generated recurrently. We are not talking about the picaresque of drawing a pasture o acorn on the labeling of a product that has not seen the pasture or is of an Iberian breed. Neither of the acceptance by the administration to allow the use of the word Iberian to pigs that are crossbreed. Although all this hurts the quality product and the country's brand. We talk about issues prosecuted by law.
In the case of the fresh meat It turns out that, although its slaughter is seasonal, it is marketed all year round. In other words, either that meat is not from Iberian montanera pork or it is frozen and not fresh. For all this the University of Cordoba has developed the NIRS technology that allows you to quickly know if the meat has been defrosted or not. Projects like the one at the University of Córdoba help the market and honest producers a lot.
Deception in appellations of origin
Fraud is becoming more and more common and forgery of identifications of some appellations of origin. Also of brands, especially of well-known distillates. A few days ago we already alerted in Gastronomic Information of the investigation carried out by the police in this regard. A fraud with an international plot and with a high economic value.
Unfortunately it is not uncommon to find well known wineries as happened last April in the Denomination of Origin Valdepeñas that bottled more than they should as established by the DO itself. In this case they carried out an alleged fraud when labeling reserves and large reserves to wines that were not.
New technologies, new solutions
In search of new solutions technology and digitalization they can help a lot. Sure, it will be very difficult to completely eradicate these practices but they can put a stop and leave a trace more easily. Blockchain solutions such as FoodXain they can help all producers who want to be totally transparent with the consumer. An exercise in transparency and honesty that is increasingly necessary in organic products, with a specific origin and of high value.
No doubt the transparency y honesty They are the only way for all producers who seek to give prestige and honesty to the product. For all this, they are already starting self-control initiatives (AMN) of these values that allow to give the prestige to the product in a safe way. A problem that should be an opportunity for all producers and processors who are determined to be totally transparent with their products.
