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Wine, spirits, meat and even baby food can all be faked, with fraudsters hiding their true origins. Now forensic scientists are clamping down on food fraud, which costs millions in lost revenue and can put the health and safety of the public at risk.


Imagine tucking into a fine fillet of "British" beef, only to learn it actually came from Australia. Or drinking "French" wine that actually came from California.
What if the "Italian" olive oil you pour over the accompanying salad originated in Morocco?
That might not be so bad, you may think.
But what if a bottle of vodka you'd purchased in good faith is tainted with methanol, making it lethal to drink?
Or the baby food you feed your youngest is not what the label on the jar said it is?
As global trade has increased, so has the potential for food fraud, where fraudsters lie or hide the true provenance of produce.
Alongside food safety and health fears, its raises concerns over quality control, reputational damage and lost revenue, and puts the spotlight on illegal activity.
Now some firms are taking to using scientists, a type of food "crime scene investigators", to tackle the issue.
Faking it
In a world where food is exported and imported every day, how do you prove that the origin of a product is legitimate?
A company in New Zealand has developed a scientific origin system which maps and catalogues "food fingerprints".
"What we do needs to be able to stand up in court," says Dr Helen Darling, from Oritain.
Most food supply chains use predominantly paper-based systems to trace the origin of food, such as following barcodes.
But while these show the route a product has travelled and how, and "whatever kind of details you want to capture in that system", says Dr Darling, Oritain's proof of origin "cannot be faked".
Oritain's scientific liaison officer Rebecca McLeod says it ties food and drinks back to their geographic origin, by mea

Crown Capital Management International Relations Deputy Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Susilo Siswo Utomo also said a government probe into the tunnel collapse should end in one or two months. Arizona-based Freeport suspended operations at the world's No. 2 copper mine on May 15, a day after the training tunnel, away from its main operations, fell in on 38 workers. Several investigations are being conducted into the accident at the Grasberg mine complex, including one by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and one by Freeport Indonesia using international experts. Susilo told reporters on Monday the open-pit production would restart in the immediate future and there was no reason for it not to resume as the investigation was not being done in the production area. The Grasberg mine normally produces around 220,000 tonnes of concentrated ore a day, with around 140,000 tonnes coming from open-pit mining and 80,000 tonnes from underground operations. Some industry analysts say the mine could face a prolonged closure and further strain relations between Freeport and trade unions after a three-month strike there in late 2011. Freeport Indonesia could not be contacted by telephone on Monday. On Saturday, as many workers carried out maintenance work, a Freeport spokeswoman said any restarting of operations would depend on the outcome of underground safety inspections being carried out by the energy and mineral resources ministry. A union official at Freeport Indonesia reiterated that all investigations into the cause of the collapse must be completed before mining resumes at the Grasberg complex, which also holds the world's largest gold reserves. "The union welcomes the management's decision to resume maintenance activities in Grasberg open-pit mining, but not for production activities," Papua-based union leader Virgo Solos