Mitchell Weinberg
says almost all foods from China that he has tested have some degree of fraud.
In the eight years since he founded Inscatech in New York, Weinberg says
China remains the worst place for food fraud.
“Statistically
we’re uncovering fraud about 70 percent of the time, but in China it’s very
close to 100 percent,” he said. “It’s pervasive, it’s across food groups, and
it’s anything you can possibly imagine.”
China has had major scandals ranging from
melamine-laced baby formula, to rat-meat sold as lamb.
Weinberg’s company is developing molecular
markers and genetic fingerprints to help authenticate natural products and sort
genuine foodstuffs from the fakes.
Another approach companies are pursuing uses digital technology
to track and record food travels from farm to plate.
