Over the past few months, we have profiled several foods that are frequent victims of “food fraud,” such as coffee and orange juice.
iCoffee
In August 2011, a California resident filed a class action complaint against Safeway, a supermarket chain, alleging that their product “Safeway Select Kona Blend Coffee” was misleading due to the fact that the product only contained a small proportion of Kona beans. The packaging did not state where the rest of the coffee beans were grown. The resident stated that $5 million should be returned to all consumers who purchased this product after August 30, 2007.1
Safeway responded that they believed the wording on the packaging effectively alerted customers that the coffee beans were not exclusively Kona. The corporation also stated that the compensation should be less than $5 million because the percentage of Kona beans in the blend had been raised to a minimum of 10% in 2012 in response to criticism from the Kona Coffee Farmers Association. Starting in 2012, Safeway also began to disclose on the packaging that up to 90% of the coffee beans in that product were actually grown in Latin America.2
Unfortunately, in March 2013, both sides agreed to dismiss the case. Kona coffee growers were disappointed, since they hoped that the case would provide future protection of the “Kona” brand. Cecelia Smith, the president of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association, stated:
Kona coffee growers had hoped that a court decision on the legal issues in the Safeway case would encourage the Hawaii Legislature and the Hawaii Attorney General to begin providing the types of protections that, for example, California provides to Napa Valley wine, Idaho to Idaho potatoes, and Georgia to Vidalia onions.3
In addition to false advertising about where coffee beans are grown, coffee sometimes has other ingredients added in. Beware of instant coffee, as it is very easy for companies to add other ingredients to this product without you noticing. It is common for instant coffee to contain a mixture of cereals, starch, and even figs.4 The best way to avoid coffee food fraud is to buy coffee beans that you can then just grind yourself, instead of buying pre-ground coffee, since whole coffee bean products are less likely to have unwanted ingredients in them. As always, make sure to carefully read the packaging in order to make sure that the company is sharing where the coffee beans were grown.
Orange Juice
iiOrange juice – a product so seemingly simple. It turns out that orange juice has been documented containing many more ingredients than just oranges. In 2012, low levels of carbendazim, a fungicide, were discovered in orange juice imported from Brazil. While it is illegal to use carbendazim on orange trees in the United States as of 2009, many countries other than Brazil, such as Costa Rica and Mexico, use carbendazim and export orange juice to the U.S. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a report stating that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration tests the products coming in from these countries and stated that ingesting low levels of carbendazim does not pose serious health risks. The products containing carbendazim were therefore not recalled in 2009. However, I am personally skeptical of ingesting any amount of chemical that is also used as a fungicide in paints, textiles, and adhesives.5
In addition to fungicides, orange juice products have been found to contain other types of fruit juices, high fructose corn syrup, paprika extract, and beet sugar. Common other fruit juices added to orange juice include lemon juice, mandarin juice, and grapefruit juice.6 The most controversial of these unwanted ingredients is the high fructose corn syrup. All on its own, high fructose corn syrup has many negative health impacts that have been well publicized over the past few years. High fructose corn syrup is a man-made product that has led to higher rates of obesity, since fructose does not stimulate insulin secretion or leptin production, both of which regulate body weight and food consumption. High fructose corn syrup also contains toxins, such as mercury. In 2009, researchers found mercury in nine out of 20 commercial samples of high fructose corn syrup. Long-term accumulation of a heavy metal, such as mercury, can lead to serious health impacts such as vision problems, loss of appetite, fatigue, and forgetfulness.7
A great way to avoid orange juice food fraud is to buy organic oranges and squeeze them yourself! That way there are no questions as to whether or not the result is 100% orange juice ☺
