Food fraudsters bulk out their Parmesan ... with bits of cardboard
PARMESAN cheese is being bulked up with cheap fillers – including cardboard – inspectors have found.
It is part of a growing food fraud problem that has seen everything from a fish and chip supper to exclusive manuka honey being targeted by crooks.
The ‘ horsegate’ scandal, where horse was being sold as beef in burgers and ready meals, brought the problem to public attention.
however, criminal gangs are routinely doctoring other foods, using cheap alternatives and bulking agents, in order to cash in.
agents of the US food and drug administration raided a cheese factory in rural Pennsylvania. They found evidence that Castle Cheese Inc. had been doctoring its 100 per cent real Parmesan with cutrate substitutes and fillers such as a wood pulp-like cellulose additive. Bosses at the company are due in court in the next few months and are facing hefty fines.
american firms often flout eu rules that state Parmesan must be made in Italy. Recent uS tests on store- bought grated cheese found high levels of wood-pulp content.
Manufacturers are allowed to add cellulose, which is used to make cardboard, to grated Parmesan as an anti-clogging agent. acceptable levels are considered to be around 2-4 per cent – but up to 7.8 per cent were found. Now there are concerns criminals in europe may be adulterating Parmesan too.
other food frauds on the radar of Britain’s food Crime unit, which is part of the food Standards agency, include fake manuka honey, touted for its medicinal benefits.
and cheap Shark Catfish, farmed in Vietnam, has been passed off as battered cod in fish and chip shops. one customer suffered a serious allergic reaction.
Professor Chris elliott, author of a food fraud report commissioned by the Government, said: ‘There is always the potential for food fraud to lead to severe illness, or in the worst case, death due to consumption of contaminated food.’
he added: ‘The serious end of food fraud is organised crime, and the profits can be substantial.’