The National Food Crime Unit’s Control Strategy outlines the Unit’s current food crime priorities, bringing focus to its efforts to “prevent food crime, deter and disrupt food criminals, and bring offenders to justice.”
Protecting Italian honey authenticity and combatting food fraud, the Italian Standards Body’s (UNI’s) new UNI 11972 standard introduces a new analytical method for detecting honey adulteration based in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance technology.
The EU has implemented a new regulation that requires U.S. importers of apiculture products like honey to register with the EU’s Trade Control and Expert System (TRACES). Prior to TRACES registration, businesses must complete an assessment with USDA and an application with FDA.
In light of a recent investigation that found nearly half of honey imported to the EU is adulterated, UK researchers have demonstrated the promise of two innovative techniques—DNA barcoding and spatial offset Raman Spectroscopy—for detecting sugar adulterants in honey.
The European Commission is taking strides to improve honey authenticity, including setting new origin labeling requirements, and the development of harmonized traceability requirements and improved methods of composition analysis and origin tracing. The Commission is assembling a group of experts called the “Honey Platform” to advise this work and is accepting applications.
Results of sampling and testing of imported honey for signs of economically motivated adulteration conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2022–2023 has revealed only 3 percent of samples to be violative.
ColloidTek’s Collo Analyzer is a new method for real-time liquid process quality monitoring. Based on EMF sensors and machine learning, the technology detects various contaminants and identifies potential risks in liquid processing with a single real-time measurement and instant, inline analysis.
A protocol for the collection of honey reference samples for the creation of authenticity databases has been developed by the UK Government. Honey is one of the food commodities most subject to food fraud.
Scientists have developed a small, easy-to-produce, and cost effective sensor that can detect water adulteration of honey, a commodity that is often the subject of fraudulent food production practices.
Approximately 46 percent of honey imported to the EU is adulterated, according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). These findings are the result of an EU-coordinated action, titled, “From the Hives.”
