These toxins in our food almost certainly shouldn’t be there
Article on Chris Elliott, director of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University, Belfast and food fraud.
But while working on his report, Elliott became convinced that the people behind the horsemeat scandal were organised criminals – hiding their activities in markets across Europe and scamming millions from innocent customers who ate their fraudulent products.
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Nearly any kind of food may be laced with harmful chemicals. Industrial dyes are sometimes added to spices, for example, to give them a deeper colour. And since the price of milk is set by how much protein it contains, fraudsters will add another source of protein to their watered-down product – like rice protein or even hydrolysed leather, which comes from the skins of animals.
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“It’s all about the money,” says Chris Van Steenkiste, an investigator who specialises in counterfeit goods at Europol. He’s found all kinds of fraud – from edible snails collected haphazardly from the woods instead of produced in safe conditions on a farm, to out-of-date squid washed with chemicals and sold on ice as though it were fresh.
“We’re still working on some cases that I can’t tell you a lot about, which are clearly linked to organised crime or the mafia,” he adds.
Article on Chris Elliott, director of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University, Belfast and food fraud.
But while working on his report, Elliott became convinced that the people behind the horsemeat scandal were organised criminals – hiding their activities in markets across Europe and scamming millions from innocent customers who ate their fraudulent products.
...
Nearly any kind of food may be laced with harmful chemicals. Industrial dyes are sometimes added to spices, for example, to give them a deeper colour. And since the price of milk is set by how much protein it contains, fraudsters will add another source of protein to their watered-down product – like rice protein or even hydrolysed leather, which comes from the skins of animals.
...
“It’s all about the money,” says Chris Van Steenkiste, an investigator who specialises in counterfeit goods at Europol. He’s found all kinds of fraud – from edible snails collected haphazardly from the woods instead of produced in safe conditions on a farm, to out-of-date squid washed with chemicals and sold on ice as though it were fresh.
“We’re still working on some cases that I can’t tell you a lot about, which are clearly linked to organised crime or the mafia,” he adds.
