Food adulteration in the spotlight: ‘Science gone astray’

Why do people adulterate foods for economic gain? Which foods and ingredients are most at risk? And how is it possible to prevent adulterants from entering the food supply? This guest video from US Pharmacopeia attempts to address these questions.

Director of food standards at US Pharmacopeia Markus Lipp spoke to Jonathan DeVries, senior technical manager of General Mills’ Medallion Laboratories division, about the key drivers behind economic adulteration.

DeVries says that economically motivated adulteration of foods is usually perpetrated by people who are quite knowledgeable about food and food science; he calls it “science gone astray”.

US Pharmacopeia is the non-governmental, non-profit authority responsible for setting standards for the Food Chemicals Codex, a compendium of ingredient monographs and tests to ensure the quality, purity and safety of more than 1,100 food ingredients.