LATIN AMERICAN CONFERENCE JUST IN TIME A meat scandal in Brazil over meat producers allegedly bribing health inspectors to turn a blind eye to ‘grubby’ practices highlights the vulnerabilities in global food supply chains, organisers of a Latin American Sustainable Foods Summit warn. In March, just in time for a traditional weekend churrasco (or barbeque) in Brazil, a police operation dubbed ‘Weak Flesh’ accused some of the country’s largest meat producers of repackaging beef past its sell-by date, making turkey ham out of soyabeans rather than actual birds, and overusing potentially harmful additives. The crisis, which has seen some of the country’s largest markets close their borders to Brazilian meat, has substantially reduced the country’s meat exports, worth $13 billion a year. The executive summit, planned for Sao Paulo in September, will focus on food, fraud, ethical sourcing and sustainable ingredients, and will discuss risks, food fraud detection and guidance on improving integrity of supply chains. Organiser Ecovia Intelligence says one in ten foods are adulterated or mislabelled, bringing economic, environmental and health risks. “The programme of this Sustainable Foods Summit has been designed to tackle some of the pressing sustainability issues facing the Latin American food industry,” Ecovia founder and president Amarjit Sahota says. “Brazil and Latin America are now established as leading producers and exporters of food products. By tackling food fraud and biodiversity loss, we want to ensure the country and wider region do not miss out on the sustainable food wave.” www.foodtechnology.co.nz 17 ‘Mary had a little lamb And when she saw it sicken She shipped it off to Packington And now it ’s labelled chicken.’ New York Post, 1906 In 2016, Italian police seized 85 tonnes of olives that had been adulterated with copper sulphate, which is used to stain and mask blemishes, and increase the colour intensity and uniformity of olives from a poor harvest. Nineteen people have been charged with selling food containing banned chemicals. In 2008, several Chinese dairy firms were caught adulterating infant formula with the toxic industrial chemical melamine, tricking a common dairy quality control test for nitrogen as an indicator for protein and making it appear that the milk had higher protein levels. The milk was dried and included as an ingredient in infant formula, resulting in more than 300,000 sick children with permanent kidney damage and six deaths due to kidney failure. The melamine cases are examples of economically motivated adulteration having unforeseen public health consequences. It is a reminder that 'EMA' is not only a consumer fraud issue— it can have catastrophic health impacts as well. Last year, a disgruntled employee at poultry producer Gold’n Plump collected sand and dirt from the parking lot and contaminated food on two different days. More than 25,000kg of chicken products were recalled, and US$202,000 property damage occurred. The employee faces two felony charges.
FT-Jul17-eMag-1
To see the actual publication please follow the link above