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http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/20...
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The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention's (USP) Food Fraud Database contains more than 1,300 records of food fraud published from 1980 to 2010 A recent update, which added in cases from 2011 and 2012, increased the number of records by 60 percent, or nearly 800 new records, and includes some foods you may eat everyday, like olive oil, honey, fish and orange juice Food fraud, in which foods are intentionally diluted with other ingredients or misrepresented on the label, is common among milk, spices, fruit juice, seafood and oils Whole, unprocessed foods ideally purchased from a local farmer, farmers market or food coop are those that will be best for your health as well as least vulnerable to fraud
By Dr. Mercola When you order sushi at your favorite restaurant or pick up a pound of coffee from your local supermarket, you assume youre getting the red snapper or Columbian beans as stated on the menu or label. But not so fast. A growing number of cases of food fraud are occurring in the United States, such that you may not be able to tell what youre really eating just by looking at the label. Worse still, most of these cases are not highly publicized incidents like the recent scandal of UK supermarkets selling beef burgers that actually contained horse and pig meat. Instead, theyre ongoing cases of blatant misrepresentation among some incredibly common foods.
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Even extra virgin olive oil is often diluted with other less expensive oils, including hazelnut, soybean, corn, sunflower, palm, sesame, grape seed and walnut. 2. Milk Milk was found to contain vegetable oil, whey, caustic soda, cane sugar, detergent and even toxic compounds like melamine and formaldehyde. 3. Honey
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Honey is often not honey but instead a mix of high-fructose corn syrup, sucrose syrup, invert beet sugar, water and essential oils. 4. Saffron Its the worlds most expensive spice, but it often contains adulterants such as glycerin, sandalwood dust, tartrazine (yellow dye), barium sulfate, borax, marigold flowers and even colored corn strings. 5. Orange Juice Lemon juice, sugar water, paprika extract, marigold flower extract, and a synthetic sugar/acid mixture may all be lurking in your favorite orange juice. 6. Coffee Coffee, whether ground or instant, is a likely source of hidden ingredients like roasted corn, ground parchment, barley, coffee twigs, potato flower, malt, chicory and caramel. 7. Apple Juice This childhood favorite may contain corn syrup, raisin sweetener, malic acid, beet sugar and other juices, such as grape, pineapple, pear and fig. 8. Tea Hiding inside your tea bag may be sand, sawdust, starch, China clay, used tea leaves and color additives. Some tea bags, meanwhile, are made with plastic, such as nylon, thermoplastic, PVC or polypropylene. While these plastics have high melting points, the temperature at which the molecules in polymers begin to break down is always lower than the melting point, which could allow the bags to leach compounds of unknown health hazards into your tea when steeped in boiling water. Even paper tea bags are frequently treated with epichlorophydrin, which hydrolyzes to 3-MCPD when contact with water occurs. 3-MCPD is a carcinogen associated with food processing that has also been implicated in infertility and suppressed immune function. 9. Fish Seafood fraud is actually very widespread, as according to the nonprofit ocean protection group Oceana,4 nearly 60 percent of fish labeled "tuna" in the US is not actually tuna. A shocking 84 percent of white tuna sold in sushi venues was actually escolar, a fish associated with acute and serious digestive effects if you eat just a couple of ounces. One-third of all fish samples tested across the US were found to be mislabeled, substituted for cheaper, less desirable and/or more readily available fish varieties. For instance, 87 percent of fish sold as snapper was actually some other type of fish, and the USP found that monkfish was sometimes actually puffer fish, which can also cause poisoning. 10. Black Pepper This spice is often adulterated with juniper berries, papaya seeds, starch, buckwheat flour and millet seeds. Other foods that made frequent appearances in the fraudulent food database include: Turmeric Shrimp Chili powder Lemon juice Cooking oil Maple syrup
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meanwhile, can be off by up to 20 percent before breaking any regulations, and currently you have no way of knowing if a food contains genetically modified ingredients as labeling is not required. While reading labels on the products you buy is important, when it comes to food, you're far better off limiting or eliminating foods that require extensive labeling or listing of ingredients in the first place. Whole foods the kind that have little to no labeling at all are those that will be best for your health as well as least vulnerable to fraud.
Tips for Avoiding Food Fraud and Finding Safe, Healthful Foods
If you value food safety and authenticity, you'll want to get your produce, meat, chickens, eggs and dairy from smaller community farms with free-ranging animals, organically fed and locally marketed. This is the way food has been raised and distributed for centuries ... The closer your foods are to the way theyre found in nature, and the closer you are to the actual source of your food, the greater your changes of finding pure, unadulterated food for your family. When you buy the bulk of your food from a local farmer or community-supported agriculture (CSA) program, you can get to know the person who is supplying your food and even ask questions about its growing conditions. This way, when you pick up a gallon of, preferably raw, milk or a jar of honey, youll know its pure and exactly as its being represented. Most people should be able to find a farmers market, local farm or CSA in their area (see the infographic below for resources), but in the event youre still buying some of your food at chain supermarkets, the following tips can help you to find REAL food: 1. Choose food in the least processed form possible, such as lemons instead of bottled lemon juice and whole black pepper or coffee beans in lieu of ground 2. When buying fish, purchase the whole fish whenever possible, which makes it more difficult to switch species. Also, if the price seems too low, its probably because youre buying a different fish than is actually on the label 3. Stick with stores and brands that you know and trust; while not a foolproof strategy, natural food stores generally have a better track record than big box stores or chain supermarkets If you want to learn more about the types of food fraud that may be impacting foods you commonly eat, you can both search the USP database and report fraud directly at www.foodfraud.org.
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