Monday, August 14, 2017

Food fraud rampant in China

Mitchell Weinberg says almost all foods from China that he has tested have some degree of fraud.

In the eight years since he founded Inscatech in New York, Weinberg says China remains the worst place for food fraud.

 “Statistically we’re uncovering fraud about 70 percent of the time, but in China it’s very close to 100 percent,” he said. “It’s pervasive, it’s across food groups, and it’s anything you can possibly imagine.”

China has had major scandals ranging from melamine-laced baby formula, to rat-meat sold as lamb.

Weinberg’s company is developing molecular markers and genetic fingerprints to help authenticate natural products and sort genuine foodstuffs from the fakes.


Another approach companies are pursuing uses digital technology to track and record food travels from farm to plate.