A project led by Karen Everstine of USP gathered experts from around the world, including from US-FDA, Pepsico, Cargill, Hyman, Phelps, & McNamara, Ebert Technical Management, UC Davis and FOCOS – Food Consulting Strategically. The goal was to develop a scheme to group substances used in food adulteration into hazard categories. This will help food manufacturers to set priorities in their vulnerability assessment.

Twenty-seven percent of the 1,294 adulterants had a history of causing consumer illness or death, were associated with safety-related regulatory action, or were classified as allergens. These results reinforce the importance of including a consideration of food fraud–related adulterants in food safety systems.

Two main categories were defined:

Category I: Potentially Hazardous Adulterants. Within this category, subcategories were defined, grouping substances from more to less hazardous:

  • Adulterants that have a history of causing illness or death
  • Adulterants that have a history of causing a safety-related food concern or are classified as allergens
  • Adulterants with the potential to cause illness or injury
  • Adulterants that lack applicable safety information and, therefore, corresponding regulatory authorization

Category II: Adulterants that are Unlikely to be Hazardous. Within this category, subcategories were defined:

  • Adulterants that, in other contexts, are substances permitted for use in foods in certain regions but not permitted for use in the U.S.
  • Adulterants that, in other contexts, are substances that may by law be used in foods in the U.S.
  • Adulterants that, in other contexts, are foods or food ingredients consumed by a significant number of people for a prolonged period of time

Items recorded in the USP’s Food Fraud Database are now categorized according to this classification.
The publication can be downloaded from the Journal of Food Protection’s website.