simple tests to detect food adulteration

Adulterant - Adulterants are chemical substances which should not be contained within other substances (eg. food, beverages, fuels or pesticides) for legal or other reasons. Adulterants may be intentionally added to substances to reduce manufacturing costs, or for some deceptive or malicious purpose. Adulterants..

Chinese protein adulteration - Chinese protein adulteration refers to the adulteration and contamination of several food and feed ingredients with inexpensive melamine and other compounds such as cyanuric acid, ammeline and ammelide. These adulterants can be used to inflate the apparent protein content of products, so..

Adulterant - Adulterants are chemical substance s which should not be contained within other substances (eg. food, beverage s, fuel s for legal or other reasons). Adulterants may be intentionally added to more expensive substances to increase visible quantities and reduce manufacturing costs, or for some..

Adulterated food - Adulterated food -- generally, impure, unsafe, or unwholesome food—has technical definitions in various United States laws. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 321 et seq.), the Federal Meat Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 601 et seq.), and the Poultry Products Inspection Act (21 U.S.C...

Sweet Deception: New Test Distinguishes Impure Honey From The Real Thi.. - ScienceDaily (May 16, 2009) — Here's some sweet news for honey lovers: Researchers in France are reporting development of a simple test for distinguishing 100 percent natural honeys from adulterated or impure versions that they say are increasingly being foisted off on consumers. See also: Plants & Animals Food Microbiology Biochemistry Research Earth & Climate Exotic Species Water Geochemistry Reference Honey Pollination management Beekeeping Septic tank Bernard Herbreteau and colleagues point out that the high price of honey and its limited supply has led some beekeepers and food processors to fraudulently make and sell impure honey doped with inexpensive sweeteners, such as corn syrup. These knock-offs are almost physically and chemically indistinguishable from the real thing. Scientists need a better way to identify adulterated honey, the researchers say. Herbreteau and colleagues describe a new, highly sensitive test that uses a special type of chromatography to separate and ide....

New Approach To Ensuring Unadulterated Honey Pot - ScienceDaily (Aug. 24, 2000) — Washington, D.C. -- Commercial purchasers of natural honey may one day have a quick and easy test to assure that sugars from other sources do not adulterate the product, according to Penn State researchers. See also: Plants & Animals Food Invasive Species Biochemistry Research Biotechnology Biology Reference Honey Carbohydrate Sugarcane Pollination management 'Adulteration with cheaper sugars brings down the natural value of the honey,' says Dr. Joseph Irudayaraj, assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering. 'Consumers expect a natural product with nutraceutical properties, so added sugar does not supply good service to purchasers.' Those who wish to adulterate honey use beet sugar invert because it has a mixture of sugars -- fructose, glucose and sucrose -- similar to that found in honey. Beet sugar is less expensive and increases the volume of honey. However, because the sugar compositions are so similar, determining if foreign suga....

Disease-Detecting Lab In The Palm Of Your Hand - ScienceDaily (July 3, 2008) — Detecting food-borne diseases such as campylobacter and salmonella long before they enter the food chain would help ensure that the dinner on your table is safe to eat. See Also: Health & Medicine Infectious Diseases Skin Cancer Plants & Animals Bacteria Food Matter & Energy Microarrays Biometric Reference Foodborne illness Salmonella infection Pathogen Transmission (medicine) There is no quick and simple way to detect infectious bacteria on farms, or even in food processing and distribution plants. Samples have to be sent to labs for testing, a process that can take hours or days. But what if tests for campylobacter and salmonella could be run on the spot in as little as half an hour? The result, say European researchers, would undoubtedly be a dramatic improvement in food safety. Campylobacter and salmonella are particularly nasty bacteria that are responsible for most cases of food poisoning around the world. The idea of a lab-on-a-chip, a device smal....

Simple, Inexpensive Method To Detect Melamine Poison In Food - ScienceDaily (July 22, 2009) — Larry Wackett and Michael Sadowsky, members of the University of Minnesota’s BioTechnology Institute, developed an enzyme that is used in Bioo Scientific’s new MaxDiscovery™ Melamine Test kit, which simplifies the detection of melamine contamination in food. Melamine is an industrial chemical that killed six Chinese children and hospitalized 150,000 last year after it was added to milk to increase its apparent protein content. Some children may have life-long chronic kidney problems resulting from melamine exposure. See also: Health & Medicine Nutrition Staying Healthy HIV and AIDS Matter & Energy Organic Chemistry Biochemistry Chemistry Reference Formaldehyde Dairy product Pap smear Lactose intolerance Development of the test responds to a call from the World Health Organization (WHO) for a simple, inexpensive method to detect melamine contamination in infant formula and other liquids. Until now, melamine testing required expensive laboratory equ....

  Detecting melamine in the field   University of Minnesota research leads to new technology to protect human health www1.umn.edu Bioo Scientific develops a rapid-response melamine test kit using an enzyme identified by researchers in Professor Larry Wackett's lab in the BioTechnology Institute at the College of Biological Sciences. Milk and baby formula adulterated with melamine, added to boost yield, caused thousands of children to become ill in China. The field kit allows for testing for melamine at the source ...

  Detecting melamine in the field   University of Minnesota research leads to new technology to protect human health www1.umn.edu Bioo Scientific develops a rapid-response melamine test kit using an enzyme identified by researchers in Professor Larry Wackett's lab in the biotechnology Institute at the College of Biological Sciences. Milk and baby formula adulterated with melamine, added to boost yield, caused thousands of children to become ill in China. The field kit allows for testing for melamine at the source before widespread contamination can occur.

Question : I am going to South Africa in a couple of months and I have a strict diet which is requires knowing the ingredients of foods, so I am hoping processed food labels in South Africa contain a listing of ingredients. Do they?

Answer : Basic nutrition information is not mandatory on food labels in South Africa (and may never be). However, with a little bit of effort (think of it as simple detective work) you can help your health by choosing the foods that do offer an ingredients list.

Question : Typically, foods are tested for fat levels but different testing methods can give very different results. For example, I saw the results for fat that were tested by acid hydrolysis and petroleum ether extract and noticed about a 10 fold difference. The acid hydrolysis test showed a fat level of about 10%. Where the petroluem ether extract test showed a level of about 1%. Does this have something to do with testing for total fat versus free fat? Thanks for the help!

Answer : Hydrolysis will detect only esters, triglycerides and phospholipids. Extraction will only pick up free fat.

Question : I have a friend who is now on probabtion, part of his probation stipulations is no alcohol consumption, accompaning random alcohol testing. Is there anyway to rid your system of alcohol so that it is undetectable by a breathalizer or urine test? I know that this is a dumb question, I had to ask however.

Answer : You already saw the answers, now start playing by their rules. Stop trying to bend them, and stop trying to trick them. Don't drink alcohol. It's as simple as that.