Food may not be what you think it is

THE food you’re eating may not be exactly what you think it is, according to Liaquat Ali Shah, CEO of the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (Cariri), who said that in the past, the institute has conducted analyses on food items which show the content was different to what was advertised.

Shah made these remarks while responding to reporters at a press conference at Cariri’s head office at the UWI, St Augustine campus yesterday. He said the institute conducts chemical analysis of food products at the request of public or private sector agencies and in the past, detected evidence of dilution in certain brands of coconut water and honey.

He added that certain brands of whole wheat bread may not contain whole wheat but instead caramel to give the bread the characteristic brown colour. “We have been asked in the past to check coconut water. There were allegations of dilution of the sucrose or sugar, those are some examples.

Also present at yesterday’s conference was Andy Morling, Head of Food Crime at the National Food Crime Unit in England who recalled instances of food fraud such as in 2013 when horse DNA was found in meat packaged and sold beef.

He said such instances were damaging to individual retailers and can have long-lasting economic repercussions for any country’s main exports. “This food fraud needs to be addressed through the criminal courts rather than regulatory policies. It’s about using existing legislation to combat this phenomenon,” Morling said.

Despite challenges in preventing food fraud locally, Morling and visiting Michigan State University lecturer Dr John Spink praised officials for taking such a proactive approach in implementing policies and screening standards to prevent such crimes.