Frontiers in Drug Safety

Food adulteration is not new or unknown thing for the people and is now one of the global threats for the mankind. The following chapter deals with some basics related to the topic of book like definitions and explanations like food, food fraud history of food adulteration and ends up with some brief description of Codex Alimentarius. This chapter will increase the common understanding of the readers to proceed in the next important chapters.

Genomic platforms, improved in the last decade at high throughput level, are becoming an elective tool in food analysis, in addition to the traditional microbiological, chemical and physical methods. Because milk and its products are among the most frequent causes of food-allergies, and cow milk is the major culprit, determination of animal origin of milk employed in a dairy manufacturing, is important to establish the safety of a supply chain. Since 1992, the European Union has introduced labels of origin (Protected Designation of Origin, Protected Geographical Indication, Traditional Speciality Guaranteed) to eliminate unfair competition and misleading of consumers by non-genuine products. Identification of animal species in milk food chain is therefore important to protect products subjected to labeling, as buffalo Mozzarella, sheep and goat cheese or Parmesan cheese. Amplification of single traits of animal DNA, residual in milk and cheese, through end point or real time PCR, allowed identification, and in some cases quantitation, of animal source of dairy products. This chapter reviews application of genomics against adulteration in dairy food chain, in particular to identify animal origin of milk and cheese.

This chapter introduces modern mass spectrometry for the detection of dyes in foods. An LC/MS/MS method for the determination of 20 synthetic dyes is first described. Followed high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) demonstrates the modern screening method for illegal dye adulteration. There is an example of semitargeted/ non-targeted detection and structure confirmation of a non-permitted dye, diethyl yellow, by quadrupole-orbitrap HRMS. Mass spectrometry operated on selected reaction monitoring (SRM) is gold standard normally used for the detection of analytes such as pesticides, veterinary medicines and additives such as dyes in complex matrix. However, SRM only allows signals which fit target list to be recorded. It will lose all information of semi-target, non-target or even unknown. A new concept called dataindependent acquisition (DIA) overcomes the limitations of SRM and increases the possibility of semi-target and non-target detection. This chapter includes the application of DIA for simultaneously screening and confirmation of dyes in various foods.

Honey is one of the popular foods used to enhance the taste in many food articles worldwide. The importance of honey is not restricted to the boundaries of any certain countries. Honey is also important from the religious point of view. Honey is also a good source of energy. This chapter deals with the adulteration analysis of honey within last three years. This chapter describes briefly nutritious benefits and composition of honey. The analysis of adulteration of honey is described in different sections; Liquid Chromatography (LC), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIS), Rheology and Sensors.

UV Vis spectrophotometry is one of the basic analytical techniques used for the analysis of many inorganic and organic molecules. It is also used for the determination of complex mixtures to some extent. UV Vis spectrophotometry is used for both industrial as well as academic researches. This chapter includes determination in adulteration of some drugs by using this versatile technique. This chapter provides description of research related to the adulteration analysis of drugs by UV spectrophotometry. The chapter also contains a brief discussion about this technique initially followed by published applications in the field of adulteration analysis.

Pomegranate juice adulteration is a common phenomenon in the market. The main reasons are associated with high product demand, high price, limited harvest season, and lack of production in some region. The most common adulteration methods are: (i) dilution with water, (ii) adding sugars or sweet juices, (iii) adding a part of lemon juice, (iv) adding fruit juices with intense red colour, and (v) adding liquids which have lower price like grape, peach or pear juice. To protect the consumer and to prevent unfair competition, authenticity and compliance with the product specification must be guaranteed. An adulterated pomegranate juice can be analysed with the determination of chemical composition. The methods commonly used for detection of adulterated pomegranate juice are the profiling and quantification of some compounds such as carbohydrates, phenolic compounds, amino acids, anthocyanins and pigments, and organic acids. The traditional chemical analysis techniques such as highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography (GC), and attenuated total reflection (ATR)-Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy have also been successfully performed for the detection of the authenticity of pomegranate juices. This review summarizes the adulteration methods and analysis of pomegranate juice.

The use of dietary supplements is widespread. Concurrent adulteration of such products with undeclared pharmaceuticals has been reported quite often, especially for ‘the big three’, erectile dysfunction, weight-loss, and sports performance products. But still most consumers are unfamiliar with the problem, posing potentially serious health consequences. This article highlights the most common synthetic substances found as adulterants in dietary supplements, describes the analysis and the difficulties with the scientific assessment, using sexual enhancement products as an example.

Medicinal plant extracts are complex mixtures containing many compounds. Their therapeutic properties may be due to the cumulative or synergistic effects of contained compounds. The adulteration or substitution of the herbal products especially food supplements is crucial problem in herbal products industry. Adulteration or substitution may be deliberate or accidental. Valuable herbal products are substituted with similar low quality products and used as adulterant which may or may not have any therapeutic potential as that of original product. The quality control studies are very important to provide active, high quality and safe food supplement. Therefore, fast, specific, accurate, inexpensive, and high throughput analytical methods are needed. Some chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques are used for identification and quantification of bioactive compounds, impurities, contaminants, and also other compounds present in the food supplements. The chromatographic fingerprint analysis offers significant advantages in analytical methods because of the complex and multi component matrix of the food supplements. Screening of the content and quantification of food supplements can be possible in a single fingerprint run.

There are three macro components of foods namely protein, carbohydrates and lipids. Lipids include fats and oils which are very important components for the human diet and considered to be concentrated sources of energy. Major classes of fats and oils are vegetables oils, marine oils and animal fats. Naturally, in vegetable oils all fatty acids are in cis form. But through industrial processing, especially during hydrogenation process, artificial trans fats are developed and considered to be very dangerous for human health. According to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), trans fat is supposed to be unwanted fat and in the diet it should be as minimum as possible. Therefore, trans fat labeling is mandatory in all foods in which fats and oils are involved. For the trans fat, labeling on food products requires adequate analytical methods. Therefore, the present review will cover brief outline of analytical techniques used for the analysis of trans fat.

Saffron is of commercial importance for manufacturers because of its flavoring properties in food industry and medicinal properties in pharmaceutical industry. The biological source of saffron is the dried stigma of Crocus sativus L. flower. In order to decrease its cost and meet large demand across the globe; it is adulterated with other spurious materials by criminals to mislead the consumers which in turn renders it completely useless or even harmful. The genuine saffron should meet the quality requirements as laid down by FDA or ISO specifications. In the present chapter, adulteration of saffron and various physical, chemical and analytical techniques are described for the rapid discrimination between pure and impure saffron.