Food Safety Forensics: Investigating Food Fraud, Foreign Substances, and Contaminants

Food Safety Forensics is an emerging branch of forensic chemistry that deals with using food safety principles, detection methods, and processes to solve crimes, or to verify and document food poisoning or adulteration. Food adulteration and food fraud is a very common problem and severe crime motivated by economic gain that can happen in many forms. Food products can be frauded by adding nonauthorized bulk agents or beyond legal limits or by adding nondeclared ingredients, additives, or unauthorized compounds. Food adulteration can lead to chronic poisoning, various health hazards, and even fatality. The primary threats to consumers in food safety cases are life and overall healthy well-being, The use of a structured methodology used in the forensic fields today with the application of sound food science and safety principles can quickly and accurately identify the core problem. In every foodborne illness in which damages are sought through the initiation of a lawsuit, there are five W’s of Food safety forensics that need to be answered: who, what, when, where, why, and most importantly, how? At present, food adulteration testing is being used strategically to detect the riskiest known and potential contaminants when food tampering is suspected. Newer tests are being designed that can screen for food adulteration more efficiently or confirm authenticity through genetic or biological markers.