Food Fraud and the Public Analyst - Again

The New Scientist magazine of November 15 2006 (issue 2577, page 40) published an article "Buyer beware: the rise of food fraud". An outline item may be seen by visiting the Website of New Scientist at www.newscientist.com and using the search facility for "food fraud". To read the full article a subscription to the online version of New Scientist is required or the standard printed version obtained.

Following the publication, APA President Alan Richards wrote to the magazine expressing his concern at the low level of sampling for enforcement purposes in many areas. The letter was published in New Scientist of 2 December 2006 (issue 2580, page 20) under the title "Vanishing analysts". The text of his letter is given below.

"Your article on food fraud made interesting reading, but its contents did not come as news to the UK's few remaining public analysts . We are appointed under statute to direct the analysis of food to help local authorities enforce food law, and have been protecting the public from adulterated food for nearly 150 years.

The article highlighted several high-profile special initiatives, but routine sampling - to detect the watering of milk or high levels of fat in mince, for example - is in terminal decline. Imagine a town with a population of 300,000 and the number of different food products that those people eat at home, at work and at play in a day. On average only one of those foods will have been sampled for a public analyst to test for safety, nutritional content or authenticity. For every £100 spent on food by consumers, less than one penny is spent by local authorities on testing."