Food Forensics and Toxicology

Book Preface

Deliberate tampering of foods (food adulteration, changes to originality and composition, etc.) for whatever purpose, be it for ensuring unfair business advantages in winning markets for economic gain, or unlawful tendencies that result in trespassing on legal binding standards, and crimes harming other human beings, are on the increase. The tendencies to either add or subtract food components, replace food ingredients with inferior ones, or label inferior food products with those of higher grade components, have become a serious problem and are affecting people in various ways almost everywhere.

In some cases, food adulteration has involved the deliberate introduction of harmful substances into foods (chemical and biological poisonous agents), where foodstuffs such as fruits, seafood, milk, dairy products, and water have been poisoned and therefore have directly affected the health of consumers either individually or as a large part of the community, causing disease and illness, abnormalities such as neurological impairment, allergies, and even death. There is a heavy penalty to be paid by criminals who cause food poisoning by food adulterations, as there are now laws that govern the quality of foods, together with standards, guidelines, and regulations that have to be adhered to by food producers, food processing industries, vendors, and food distributors.

This book covers different types of cases that encompass food forensics and food toxicology. The book also surveys different methods and techniques that are useful in providing the evidence required to be presented in food forensics cases. The book will be of relevance to colleges and universities where forensics science modules are being taught, or to academics who are involved in research activities in food forensics or food toxicology. The book may also be useful in food forensics laboratories, to researchers in food forensics, and government departments that deal with health and the general public at large.

Preface vii

List of Acronyms and Abbreviations ix
1 Food Forensics: Introduction 1
2 Food Provenance and Food Fingerprinting: Authentication and Traceability of Foods and Food Products 7
3 Food Forensics Cases Related to Food Allergenomic Sabotage and Food Intolerance: Allergens and Allergenicity of Processed Foods 47
4 Food Forensics Cases Related to Food Bioterrorism/Food Bio‐Weapons and Food Poisoning Agents: Agrochemical Food Poisoning Agents 57
5 Food Forensics Cases Related to Food Bioterrorism/Food Bio‐Weapons and Food Poisoning Agents: Biological Food Poisoning Agents 107
6 Food Forensics Cases Related to Food Bioterrorism Poisoning using Pathogenic Viruses 145
7 Food Forensics Cases Related to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) Foods 153
8 Food Forensics Cases Related to Poisoning of Food and Water using Radionuclides 169
9 Food Forensics Cases Related to Nano and Novel/Intelligent Foods, Feeds and Agroproducts 177
10 Food Forensics Cases Related to Application of Food Additives and Food Improvement Agents 209
11 Application of Molecular Biology Techniques in Food Forensics 223
12 Application of Atomic and Molecular Spectroscopic Techniques in Food Forensics 255
13 Application of Microscopy Techniques in Food Forensics 295
14 Application of Ionizing Radiations (X‐rays/γ‐Rays) Techniques in Food Forensics 309
15 Application of Chromatographic Techniques in Food Forensics 323
16 Application of Hyphenated Techniques in Food Forensics 341
17 Application of Electromigration Driven Techniques in Food Forensics 347
18 Application of Thermal Methods in Food Forensics 361
19 Application of Electrochemical Methods and Biosensors in Food Forensics 379
20 Application of Flow Cytometry in Food Forensics 391
21 Application of Multivariate Statistical Analysis/Chemometrics in Food Forensics 395
22 Conclusions and Future Trends 411
Index 413