Discover Food Safety and Quality

Authenticity in Food

Food is defined as adulterated if any valuable constituent has been substituted, if any substance has been added to increase its weight or reduce its quality or make the product appear of more value that it actually is. Analytical technologies from PerkinElmer help food processors and regulators authenticate and protect the integrity and quality of the products they produce. Whether the threat is known or unknown we offer a range of targeted and non-targeted solutions to aid in the fight against food fraud. From geographic origin to dilution, substitution, or product enhancement, we have the instrumentation and expertise to help you protect your brand. And as adulterants evolve and become more sophisticated, we consistently add new innovative solutions to our detection capabilities to keep you one step ahead.

Milk & Dairy Products

The adulteration of milk via the addition of low molecular weight compounds, such as melamine for economically motivated fraud, is a well-known concern. Methods for adulteration detection have been examined extensively. Current methods tend to focus on small molecule adulteration; however, large molecule adulteration with other animal or plant proteins is becoming increasingly common in the dairy industry. We offer innovative technologies to help researchers to identify intentional ingredient substitutions in dairy products including FT-IR and FT- NIR systems, GC-MS solutions and our milk powder analyzer.

Learn More

Grains & Wheat flour

Adulteration in grain may occur through the replacement of high-grade grains with lower-grade ones or through the addition of non-grain elements to increase product bulk or weight.

One solution from PerkinElmer is based on Spectrum Two^™ IR and Frontier^™ FT-NIR spectrometers. Together with Adulterant Screen^™ software, these instruments can test liquids and solids using a Pass/Fail approach for adulterants and authenticity in food at the same time they measure a product’s standard nutritional parameters.

Learn More

Baby Food & Juice

Addition of sugars, dilution with water or products of lesser value are among the most common adulteration practices in baby food and fruit juices. PerkinElmer can offer different analytical approaches can be used to evaluate the authenticity of these products, from mass spectrometry techniques to IR instruments able to provide results in less than 30 seconds.

Learn More

Herbs & Spices

Herbs and spices are one of the most commonly adulterated commodity products, with a prime example being oregano adulterated with olive and myrtle leaves. For the determination of the authenticity for herbbs and spices, PerkinElmer offers a full range of solutions. One of these is based on near-IR spectroscopy. This fast and cost effective technique, when combined with a spectral library, can provide conclusive information about samples, and is ideally suited to both qualitative analysis of materials and quantification of components.

Learn More

Vegetable Oils

Adulteration of EVOO with lower quality olive oils, or other lower cost edible oils, is frequently reported in the media. The most common adulterants include: hazelnut oil, sunflower oil, soybean oil, corn oil, rapeseed oil, and olive pomace oil. Mid-infrared spectroscopy is a well-established technique for the analysis of edible oil samples. The PerkinElmer Spectrum Two^™ FT-IR, a high-performance compact FT-IR allows for a fast, easy, and low-cost method for screening olive oil samples for adulterants.

Learn More

Honey

A high-value product commonly associated with adulteration is honey. Adding corn syrup allows dishonest suppliers to maintain the sweet taste without a noticeable difference in the product. PerkinElmer’s Fourier Transform Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-NIR) solutions provide a quick, high quality testing method that allows for the detection of adulterants in honey.

Learn More

Meat, Fish & Seafood

For the determination of adulterants in meats and seafood, one of the most effective and reliable methods consists in the identification and quantification of specific biomarkers. PerkinElmer’s QSight Triple Quad System is a selective method for the analysis of adulterated meats.

Learn More

Beer & Wine

Adulteration of wine is a very old practice that occurs through te addition of water, alcohol or grapes from different geographical origins. For example, the quality and price of wine is partly determined by the source of the grapes used to produce it, and the traceability of the wine origin is important for brand protection. Elemental profiling using our ICP-MS systems and related statistical software correlates the levels of trace metals in wines to the soil , which can be used to differentiate their geographical origin.

Learn More

Authenticity - Related Content

Authenticity - Related Content

Controlled cooling DSC to detect olive oil adulteration

Detecting the Adulteration of Extra Virgin Olive Oil by Controlled Cooling DSC

Controlled cooling in the DSC represents a way to extract information from food products not normally accessible by other methods. Extra virgin olive oils have a distinct cooling profile that is different from lesser grades and apparently this profile is quite responsive to changes in composition. T ...

Determination of olive oil purity and degree of oxidation using the LAMBDA XLS

This application note shows a reliable and cost effective system for measuring olive oil purity, using a UV spectrophotometric technique.

Determination of Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) in Honey using the LAMBDA Spectrophotometer

The level of Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) present is a key indicator as to the quality of honey. In this application note, the HMF content has been determined using the LAMBDA™ 465 UV/Vis Spectrophotometer and the Equation Calculation mode in the UV Lab™ software.

Detecting Manuka Honey Adulteration Using Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy Webpage: Spectrum Two

Common adulterants found in Manuka honey include beet, corn and rice syrups. The differing photosynthetic pathways in the plants used to produce these adulterants generally means that different techniques are required to detect them. Mid-Infrared spectroscopy with Adulterant Screen™ technology, can ...

Analysis of Pork Adulterated Meat

A selective and sensitive LC/MS/MS method for fast identification and analysis of meat samples using three peptides specific for pork as biomarkers. . The optimized sample preparation procedure is easy to follow and can be used for analyzing raw, cooked and processed meat products. This method can s ...

DairyGuard: Augmenting Nutritional Testing of Milk Powder with Adulterant Screening

The value of milk powder is linked to its protein content, and standard methods for protein analysis rely on a simple nitrogen assay, with the protein concentration inferred from the nitrogen content. Consequently, the addition of chemicals rich in nitrogen can artificially increase the apparent pro ...

Screening for Melamine in milk by Lactoscope FTIR

A practical screening method for the presence of melamine down to a level of 500 ppm or 0.05%m/m using Lactoscope FTIR is presented here. The discrimination limit can be further reduced to 100 ppm (0.01%m/m) using the melamine specific detection model.

Field-portable GC/MS to identify adulterated spirits

Method Development for Identification of Adulterated Spirits using Field Portable GC/MS

Learn how to detect whisky and spirits adulteration using a field-portable GC/MS through this note.

Characterization of Hop Aroma Using GC/MS, Headspace Trap and Olfactory Port

Hops are a critical ingredient in beer. Aroma characterization of hops is complex; there are many compounds in hops that contribute to flavor. This application note describes a system that is able to provide both an objective chemical analysis of hop aroma using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry ...

Authenticity Related Technologies

Tweets by PerkinElmer

Ask a Food Expert

Where to Buy