– Your laboratory investigates foreign DNA in food and develops patented testing systems to detect contamination and tampering. How is falsification of products understood by experts?
The term falsification typically means substituting part of a more expensive product with a cheaper one. For instance, sunflower honey added to premium buckwheat honey or cow’s milk mixed into goat’s milk. In turkey sausage, only a fraction of turkey meat may be used. There are also complete substitutions, such as rabbit meat being absent in rabbit sausages. In some cases, expensive meat is replaced entirely by cheaper chicken or pork.
– Which product groups are most vulnerable to counterfeiting?
Counterfeiting touches the entire food industry. It is common in milk, meat, honey, and canned foods, wherever there is a potential profit in deception.
– And what if a package bears the label “made according to GOST”?
That claim suggests the product adheres to a known recipe and can be checked using certified, standardized methods. Yet such goods have become rarer on shelves because many GOSTs are voluntary and not always fulfilled.
— How does forgery occur in production? Is a technician pressured to cut costs?
Technicians are not told to break laws. Falsification usually happens discreetly. Large firms avoid direct manipulation because it would be a public disgrace. The Federal State Information System Mercury monitors most animal-origin raw materials, but smaller businesses often slip through the cracks. Legislation also creates loopholes, such as not listing exact animal protein types. A manufacturer might state the product contains beef and animal protein, but the protein could be collagen from pig skin. A label might declare the product is not made to GOST but to its own technical specifications, known as TU.
If a product is altered from its specifications, predicting the exact formulation in advance becomes difficult. If a company wishes to meet GOST standards, it must comply with those requirements.
– Was it unprofitable for producers to follow GOST?
Yes, economically it became less attractive. As a result, products made strictly to GOST are decreasing in stores. The trend has persisted for several years.
– How do manufacturers cut material costs when making sausages under their own recipes?
Under TU, inexpensive components can be used. The label may read “Poultry: turkey, chicken,” giving an impression of turkey abundance. In reality, turkey content can be only a small portion, perhaps 10% or less, with the rest being chicken.
– Do you expect the share of products made to specifications to rise in the future?
Probably yes. Brands build trust through products that align with GOSTs. When a company demonstrates expertise in producing a trusted product like a particular sausage, consumers start to expect quality in other items from the same maker.
— How does tampering usually happen inside a business?
There are varied methods. A crude approach involves a small, unknown subcontractor producing under questionable conditions. In some cases, sausages are labeled as beef with 90% chicken, which is a deliberate misrepresentation. End results, such as dried reindeer meat, can reveal mismatches in flavor and aroma. In one instance, venison appeared in canned goods without any deer presence. Boar meat is another common red herring; distinguishing wild boar from domestic pork is challenging and often used as a marketing ploy since the meat is boiled in autoclaves and may be nearly indistinguishable by taste alone.
– Are there other instances where labels do not match the product?
Numerous examples exist. A project to identify fish species, conducted with a national safety center, revealed cod fillets in large chain stores lacking cod identification. Instead, pollock or haddock were present. Without a reliable control method, mislabeling could go unchecked. After methods for determining composition were introduced, manufacturers faced penalties and began altering packaging in different ways. Sometimes a single cod filament is replaced by another species while remaining indistinguishable to the naked eye. A qualitative test can show presence or absence of cod DNA, but a quantitative approach is needed to determine the exact species content.
– What is added to sausage products?
Chicken melange, an egg-based ready item, can be present. Some unscrupulous producers claimed that when chicken DNA appeared, it was actually chicken eggs or melange. A quantitative technique distinguishes declared undeclared chicken meat from permitted melange. After validating this method on sausages made to GOSTs, a product with over 20% chicken meat was found. The producer claimed melange, but 20% melange equates to a dish different from traditional sausage. A standard sample enabled precise measurement of added content.
– Are chicken products the most common falsified meat?
Yes. A test system was developed and registered to detect chicken content, both qualitatively and quantitatively.
– Was DNA confirmation used?
Yes. With a reference standard, the content of chicken in a product can be quantified across the entire item. For example, 2% chicken in ground pork can be reported by comparing with a standard sample.
— Was creating a reference material difficult?
Indeed. The concept of matrix standard samples did not exist in the Russian metrology system for a long time. A matrix standard sample is specially prepared, well homogenized, dried, and standardized to reflect the minced meat composition.
— Was there a predecessor to this concept?
There were no matrix standard samples for food products. In mining, matrix samples exist, but in the food sector they were not developed until recently.
– Were counterfeit products common in the USSR?
Counterfeiting existed but was controlled differently. There was an agency that would confiscate documents and track purchases. Today, tighter controls exist, but the real world still presents challenges for verification.
— What is a standardized chicken meat sample?
All chickens carry DNA segments with common sequences. A universal chicken DNA fragment was identified and a standard sample was created with consistent species-specific DNA content in the minced meat matrix.
– Have efforts to build a comprehensive collection of such examples begun?
Yes. Work is continuing on a broader range of meats, with current focus on pork and, next, a pig model.
What is the easiest thing to falsify in meat products?
Ground meat, meatballs, and sausages are especially vulnerable due to their processing. Raw carcasses or cuts can also be manipulated. Distinguishing turkey from chicken, or pork from beef, can be difficult when materials are pumped with water and additives to increase water retention.
– Can the lab determine how many times meat has been frozen or for how long?
Yes, by examining the structure of meat fibers and comparing histological sections to reference images in an atlas.
– Are freezing times frequently violated?
Not typically, since producers often rely on other strategies to extend shelf life and create new products rather day to day.