AN OVERVIEW OF THE FRAUDULENT PRACTICES USED TO COUNTERFEIT FOOD PRODUCTS

Abstract

The food problem is one of the most important problems of the contemporary world. Today, more than ever, both the quality of the food products (assured throughout the technological flow) and their proportion in the food rations are monitored. For a healthy diet, the quality of the raw material is decisive, because it transfers to the food product various nutrients that support the biological processes that take place in human nutrition.

Identification of fraudulent manipulations in foodstuffs thorough knowledge of the normal product, its essential properties and the principles and techniques used by counterfeiters to tamper with the products under investigation. In the methodology of identifying counterfeits, it must consider both typical characteristics of the normal product, alongside the characteristics printed on the products investigated by the counterfeiting methods; the latter being established according to the specific falsification procedures (modification of the initial chemical composition, modification of some organoleptic or physical characteristics by treatment with certain substances, application of treatments intended to produce the appearance of new characteristics, etc.).