NATURE'S BARCODE-A NEW TOOL FOR DETECTING IDENTITY OF FOOD

Food fraud is now acknowledged to be a universal phenomenon and safety management agencies in many countries are exasperated by the ingenuity shown by the fraudsters in thumbing the government vigilance system with more and more sophistication in their strategy. It is true government agencies with enormous resources and facilities invariably catch up with the criminals but due to tremendous diversity of foods manufactured and complex chemical composition of many of these organic cocktails, it is next to impossible to have an iron-clad case against adulterated or quality compromised foods. 

Recent development of a low cost technology that makes use of the presence of isotopes of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen in almost all foods may provide an answer to the prayers of food safety vigilante for such a tool to hunt down adulterators and fraudsters indulging in such crimes. Here are some details about the new development which is pregnant with long term implications for the food industry. 

"Until now bar codes, certification seals and electronic ID chips have been the main tools to cement consumers' confidence in food products. But as the recent fish and olive scandals show, they're far from foolproof. Food can be substituted or adulterated at any point in the supply chain, often without companies knowing. Enter the "optical stable isotope analyzer," a not-too-sexy name for a device that could provide a lot more certainty about a product near the end of its long journey to the consumer. Already in use to measure air quality and detect gas leaks, the technology, created by the Silicon Valley firm Picarro, can also detect isotopes in food. 

Hydrogen, oxygen and carbon — found in everything from hamburger to oranges — leave a detailed signature behind illustrating the weather, plant type, growing conditions and manufacturing processes. Picarro calls it "nature's barcode." By analyzing the isotopes — versions of common atoms that have slightly different masses – in this barcode, the Picarro device can detect minute differences in the chemical composition of foods".

Food adulteration is more common with high cost foods like olive oil, honey, caviar, saffron, spices etc and the incentive for tampering with these foods is extraordinarily high. While economically motivated adulteration can be tolerated to some extent, it is the activity of fraudsters indulging in food adulteration using unsafe substances that poses real challenge. 

Of course ideally no adulteration can be condoned and those who indulge in such practices must be punished severely and mercilessly as part of a deterrent policy. Whether availability of techniques such as the above will still guarantee safe foods to the denizens is still an uncertainty because unless there are adequate technical personnel and physical infrastructure put in place for safety monitoring of products at the processing place as well as the market place, no matter how efficient the instrument may be, the fraudsters will still get away!