Call For Food Testing

RSSL, a food research laboratory, has seen an increase in requests for tests to show food adulteration and authentication since the horsemeat scandal over a year ago, but claims that mistakes are still being made and the system is still being cheated.

The laboratory has recently found that large numbers of foods produced in West Yorkshire have been misleadingly-labelled, and contain alien consumables such as illegal additives or ‘cheese analogue’ – a pizza topping created using vegetable oil rather than dairy fat.

Simon Flanagan, senior food consultant at RSSL said, “The last 13 months has been a wake up call for the food industry who are in some cases struggling to get to grips with very complex and interwoven supply chains.

“Whenever expensive ingredients are concerned there is the potential for substitution or adulteration and we can only hope that the next form of adulteration does not give rise to a serious food safety issue as happened with the melamine incident a couple of years back.

“Food business operators are having to devise strategies to try and second guess which will be the next food or ingredients which could be subject to adulteration and work with suppliers to develop controls to mitigate this risk. RSSL are working closely with clients to help devise such strategies at all stages of the supply chain and have analytical services to help companies check for adulterants.”