Food Safety Magazine, February/March 2012

REGULATORY REPORTIn a globalized food industry where suppliersof varying sizes and sophisticationare relied upon forneeded food ingredients,public standardsprovide real benefitand could be one ofthe cornerstones for industry’sself-regulation.EnhancingStandards: Testingfor Modern-DayRealitiesOne of the mostpowerful uses of qualitystandards is in testingfor identity. Tokeep pace with thethreat of adulteration,the development of more specific identitytesting for food ingredients is a centralfocus in USP’s efforts regarding foodingredient standards. The rationale forthis approach is as follows: Rather thanadding tests for each potential adulterantfor a food ingredient, a more efficient(and effective) approach is to better definewhat something is (as opposed towhat it isn’t). Chasing whatever the nextfood adulterant will be always puts industry,regulators and others one step behindunscrupulous food adulterers, whoare constantly engaged in finding newways to gain illicit profit. USP’s efforts tocombat adulteration include modernizingexisting FCC monographs with betteridentity tests, particularly for thosefood ingredients deemed to be at higherrisk of adulteration, and incorporatingmore specific tests when developing newmonographs. Particular categories offood ingredients may be at greater risk,based on such considerations as consumerdemand, economic value and theexistence of scientific/analytical testingweaknesses that may be exploited.USP formed a Food Ingredients IntentionalAdulterants Expert Panel in2009 to examine, among other criticalissues, food ingredients that are morevulnerable to adulteration and to developwork plans to address these““An essential supple-”ment to quality andsafety systems thatanchors them in realityis periodic testing toverify the authenticityof food ingredients...”threats. At-risk food ingredients identifiedby the panel include novel sweetenerssuch asrebaudioside A (stevia),infant formula ingredients,spices, cocoapowder, meat powder,rice protein isolate andothers. In many ofthese categories, USPhas proposed newfood ingredient standardssince the expertpanel began its work.The latest edition ofthe food ingredientcompendium, FCC 8,will be released inMarch 2012 and incorporatesmuch of thiswork. The expert panel has also commissionedsome exciting larger-scale projects,including a Food Fraud Databasecompiling published instances of foodadulteration over the past 30 years,which will be used to guide USP’s futurework in this area and as a resource to industry’srisk management efforts.The Bottom Line: What We Don’tKnow Can Hurt UsEconomically motivated adulterationposes a host of risks—from business, legaland public health perspectives. Thesobering reality is that every safeguard inplace in our global multibillion-dollarfood industry is null and void if one cannotconfirm the authenticity of the foodingredients that make up a product.Once an unknown substance enters thefood supply chain, everything we do tomanage risk goes out the window, andwe can only hope for the best. In an industrythat touches us all, with so muchto lose, that simply cannot suffice. nMarkus Lipp, Ph.D., is the director, food standards,at USP.F E B R U A R Y n M A R C H 2 0 1 2 19