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Food authenticity is my passion… death from inauthentic coconut drink

Why am I passionate about authenticity in our food supply? Because when we get things wrong horrible tragedies can happen; in December 2013 an allergic child died from anaphylaxis because of undeclared dairy ingredient/s in his coconut drink.   His parents knew of his dairy allergy and checked the label to make sure that the ‘natural coconut drink’ did not contain cow’s milk before they gave it to him. Unfortunately the label was wrong.

Tragedies like this are preventable.  It has taken almost two years and the near death of another child under similar circumstances for widespread action to be taken by the local food regulatory authorities here in Australia.

The importer of the drink has pleaded guilty to charges of labelling in a way that falsely describes food and will be sentenced later this month.

Coconut beverages are being tested and recalled right now, but I’m sad that it has taken such a long time for this to become a high priority for food law enforcement.

For a full report  on this incident click here.

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When the big boys get it wrong…

Coles has been caught breaching its own sustainable fish sourcing policy by selling yellow fin tuna.  Yellow fin tuna is classified as ‘near threatened’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural resources and generally considered to be a fish species that cannot be sustainably fished right now.

After being caught selling the home brand canned yellow fin tuna by journalists from Fairfax Media last week, Coles reported that those particular cans of tuna were from a certified sustainable fishery in the Maldives where the population of yellow fin is ‘doing really well’. It looks to me like Coles relied on the Marine Stewardship Council certification rather than cross-checking the species sections of their own sourcing policy.

Coles has more regulatory, purchasing and compliance resources than just about any other food business in Australia.  So if they occasionally make mistakes in their policies and procedures, what hope have smaller businesses got?

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Authenticity vs regulatory compliance vs safety; the snake wine perspective

Anyone for some snake wine? According to Brady Ng of Munchies, a good snake wine should taste like a meal in a shot glass. Snake wine is made by drowning a live snake in a vessel of strongly alcoholic rice wine, often accompanied by herbs and spices or smaller reptiles like geckos.

The video below went viral this week as western viewers shared their shock and horror at the cruelty involved in producing the beverage which is popular in Vietnam, Korea and China. Leaving aside the issues of animal cruelty, here at Food Fraud Advisors we were asking these questions:

Is the snake wine in this video authentic? Sure looks like it!  Authenticity depends solely on how the finished product is marketed, so provided that the seller does not claim it was made with cobra and special rice wine if it really contains a plain old garden python and cheap grain alcohol, it could be considered ‘authentic’.  Read more about authenticity here.

Is the snake wine in this video legal? Perhaps. Its manufacturing methods may breach laws about endangered species and animal cruelty, and I can’t make any comment on whether it complies with the local liquor excise laws and taxes, but the finished product itself probably meets basic food safety laws in most of South East Asia.

Is the snake wine in this video safe to drink?  Probably.  The alcohol in the wine denatures any venom in the snake and does a great job of controlling any microbial hazards.  And I’m told a well-aged snake wine tastes pretty good.  Just make sure the snake is truly dead before you open the bottle, or you could meet the same fate as this woman in China.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XepfwPzdT_A

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Authentic Food versus Safe Food

Food authenticity is utterly dependent on the way a food is marketed or presented.  A piece of meat sitting on a plate is just a piece of meat until someone tells you something about it; is it organic? is it free-range? grass-fed? hormone-free?  It is only after a product has been described in some way that authenticity becomes relevant.  Authentic food is food (or drink) that is what it is claimed to be.  Simple!  Or is it?  Read more about food authenticity here.

Safe food is safe to eat and it’s as simple as that.  It doesn’t matter how the food is described or sold, whether it’s horse meat or venison or giraffe, if it’s safe to eat then it’s safe to eat.  Simple!  …. well pretty simple anyway… read more about safe food here.

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Organic almonds twice the price?

My friend loves to buy healthy, natural and organic food for her family.  They eat a couple of kilos of almonds per week.  Last week she decided to check out the organic almonds available for bulk purchase at a local natural food co-op (yes this is in an inner suburb of Sydney, how’d you guess?).  The organic almonds were over twice as expensive at the co-op than if she had bought them from one of the big supermarkets.

Are they worth it?  Maybe… she really likes the idea of buying organic food.

Are they authentic?  Who knows? If the organic almonds are selling for around $30 per kg and the supermarket almonds are selling for $15 per kg then an unscrupulous supplier could make some easy money by adding just 10% ‘non-organic’ almonds to each lot of organic.  Do I think the local organic co-op would do such a thing?  No, I don’t think they would.  Do I think that there are people in their supply chain who might be tempted to take advantage of the premium price of organic food by acting fraudulently? Absolutely.

So are organic almonds vulnerable to food fraud?  Yes.  But how do you know if your almonds are authentic?  And what are the consequences it they are not?