title: A comprehensive strategy to detect the fraudulent adulteration of herbs: The oregano approach.
abstract: Fraud in the global food supply chain is becoming increasingly common due to the huge profits associated with this type of criminal activity. Food commodities and ingredients that are expensive and are part of complex supply chains are particularly vulnerable. Both herbs and spices fit these criteria perfectly and yet strategies to detect fraudulent adulteration are still far from robust. An FT-IR screening method coupled to data analysis using chemometrics and a second method using LC-HRMS were developed, with the latter detecting commonly used adulterants by biomarker identification. The two tier testing strategy was applied to 78 samples obtained from a variety of retail and on-line sources. There was 100% agreement between the two tests that over 24% of all samples tested had some form of adulterants present. The innovative strategy devised could potentially be used for testing the global supply chains for fraud in many different forms of herbs.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Global Food Security, Advanced ASSET Centre, School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Connor
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Black
authors.affiliation: Institute for Global Food Security, Advanced ASSET Centre, School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. Electronic address: s.a.haughey@qub.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Simon A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Haughey
authors.affiliation: Institute for Global Food Security, Advanced ASSET Centre, School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Olivier P
authors.initials: OP
authors.lastname: Chevallier
authors.affiliation: Institute for Global Food Security, Advanced ASSET Centre, School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Galvin-King
authors.affiliation: Institute for Global Food Security, Advanced ASSET Centre, School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Christopher T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Elliott
mesh_terms: D019659:Asteraceae; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid / Q000379:methods; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D031341:Origanum / Q000737:chemistry*; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000737:chemistry*; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared / Q000379:methods; D017365:Spices / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: Adulteration; Authenticity; Biomarkers; Fourier transform infrared; High resolution mass spectrometry; Oregano