Food adulteration: Sources, health risks, and detection methods.

Area of Science:

• Food Science
• Analytical Chemistry
• Public Health

Background:

• Food adulteration, a longstanding issue, compromises food quality and poses significant health risks.
• Ensuring food authenticity and safety is crucial for consumer protection and market integrity.
• Regulatory concerns drive the need for reliable food adulterant detection methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review common food adulteration types across various food products.
• To elucidate the adverse health effects associated with different food adulterants.
• To compile and compare available detection methodologies for food adulterants.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of scientific publications and regulatory documents.
• Categorization of adulteration techniques and their associated health risks.
• Analysis of physical, biochemical/immunological, and molecular detection methods.

Main Results:

• Identified diverse adulteration practices in food items, impacting quality and safety.
• Documented various health implications stemming from consumption of adulterated foods.
• Highlighted the strengths and limitations of different analytical techniques for adulterant detection.

Conclusions:

• Physical and biochemical methods are effective for detecting non-biological adulterants.
• Molecular techniques offer high specificity and sensitivity for identifying biological adulterants in food.
• Comprehensive analytical strategies are essential for robust food safety assurance and combating food fraud.