Economic Adulteration: Beyond Melamine
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By R. J. PACKER, PerkinElmer Inc. & F. J. WARREN, Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences Research Division, School of Medicine, Kings College London
Five years ago, the increasing number of renal failures in dogs and cats alerted the authorities to a problem in the pet food supply chain ? melamine and cyanuric acid were being added to pet food.1 Food ingredient producers who were adding these chemicals did so with the intent of exploiting the long-standing system of payment for ingredients.
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The answer to these issues is non-targeted, low-cost screening. By implementing easy-to-use equipment to stop poor-quality, potentially-dangerous ingredients from going into the production lines, fraudulent suppliers can be identified and prosecuted.
Near infrared (NIR) allows faster analysis of these properties as opposed to traditional wet chemistry methods. Food processors are investigating NIR as a technology to do this as it is a technology with which they are familiar. It can also be used by low-skilled workers and can identify economic adulterants in most food types without incurring huge costs. This hunt has invariably begun by identifying melamine in milk powder, but is being expanded to other areas. One such area is that of monitoring for adulteration in dietary supplements....
