Have you ever reached into a bowl of M&Ms and popped some into your mouth, only to discover that they weren’t M&M’s but that they were Skittles instead?
That’s FOOD FRAUD!.
Have you ever picked out the perfect chocolate chip cookie from the lunch counter, only to get home and discover that it’s really an oatmeal raisin cookie pretending to be a chocolate chip cookie?
That’s FOOD FRAUD!
Swindled: The Dark History of Food Fraud,
from Poisoned Candy to Counterfeit Coffee
And while those are more self-imposed food frauds, there are a handful of other FOODS THAT ARE NOT QUITE AS THEY SEEM. They become adulterated, like fine cocaine chopped down for distribution with baby laxative (or so we’ve been told on TV shows like Law & Order or HBO’s prison drama OZ).
After careful analysis by the US PHARMACOPEIAL CONVENTION, they’ve identified SEVEN FOODS THAT ARE MOST LIKELY TO NOT BE PURELY WHAT THEY SAY THEY ARE.
Those foods are:
- olive oil
- milk
- honey
- saffron
- orange juice
- coffee
- apple juice
You can get all the details by browsing the FOOD FRAUD DATABASE and typing in your suspect ingredient. Using our examples above, we’ve found the following:
- Honey being used as a substitute for saffron
- Coffee husks being used instead of cinnamon
- Roasted soybeans being used instead of coffee
- Lard in place of chocolate
- Formaldehyde instead of milk
Oh, the trouble you’ll find if you only go look. You may not want to eat anything from a grocery story ever again. Ick.