APA News

  • UK’s Public Analysts at forefront of drive to detect food adulterated with almond and peanut


    The UK’s Public Analyst laboratories are at the forefront of a drive to detect food products that may have been adulterated with almond or peanut as a substitute for more expensive nuts or seeds.

    In a press article press article Professor Chris Elliott, who led the Government’s inquiry into the horsemeat scandal, has put the UK’s half a million nut and legume allergy sufferers on high alert. He fears that cheap peanuts and almonds are secretly being used in dishes claiming to contain more expensive cumin seeds to save money.

    The alert began when Environmental Health officers in Edinburgh responded to an urgent request from Food Standards Agency Scotland to test cumin products for almond and peanut following product recalls in the USA. Using both an ELISA protein detection test and a Real Time PCR DNA test scientists at Edinburgh Scientific Services detected undeclared almond (Prunus dulcis) in a sample of ground cumin seeds which resulted in the Food Standards Agency instigating a national recall of a Barts Ground Cumin product on 31 January 2015