. 2021 Oct 25;10(11):2570. doi: 10.3390/foods10112570

Table 1.

Unauthorized food manipulation regarding food fraud cases, 2010–2020.

Country, Year	Food	Unauthorized Food Manipulation *		Adulterants	Case	Reference
Country, Year	Food	Fraud Type (USA), FDA 401, 403	Fraud Type (EU), 178/02 Article 8	Adulterants	Case	Reference
Honey
USA, 2011	Honey	Adulteration Tampering	Mislabelling Deceiving practice Ingredients replacement	Chinese honey	Fifteen people and six companies from all around the world were accused of masking Chinese-origin honey with new packaging and false documents before shipping it to the U.S. for consumption in various forms ¹.	[26]
Italy, 2017	Acacia honey	Adulteration Substitution/Tampering	Mislabelling Deceiving practice Ingredients replacement	Flower honey	A distributor of local and foreign honeys (Romania, Croatia, and Argentina) was selling flower honey labelled as acacia honey that was 40% more expensive. Twenty-two tons of honey were seized after discovering the fraud using pollen analysis ¹.	[27]
Australia, 2018	Honey	Adulteration Dilution/ Substitution Tampering	Mislabelling Deceiving practice Ingredients replacement	Corn syrup	An Australian honey distributer was accused of selling honey adulterated with corn syrup to increase profit ¹.	[28]
South Africa, 2018	Natural honey	Adulteration Dilution Substitution Tampering	Mislabelling Deceiving practice Ingredients replacement	Solution of sugar and lemon	A honey producer from South Africa was accused of preparing concentrated sugar solution spiked with lemon and selling it as honey. The producer denied the accusation but confessed feeding bees with sugar. Products labelled as natural honey were recalled from the stores ¹.	[28]
Canada, 2019	Imported honey	Adulteration Dilution/Substitution Tampering	Mislabelling Deceiving practice Ingredients replacement	Sugar cane and rice syrup	Tests carried out by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency indicated that 22% of tested imported honey was diluted with sugar cane or rice syrup. Unlike imported honey, none of the Canadian honey tested was adulterated ¹.	[29]
Italy, 2020	Honey	Tampering	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Honey without origin label	Seven tons of honey were seized because they lacked a label of origin. This was the same honey that was seized before because of noncompliance with legal hygienic requirements but was placed again on the market illegally ¹.	[30]
Olive oil
Greece, 2017	Olive oil	Adulteration Substitution Tampering	Mislabelling, Deceiving practice	Sunflower oil dyed green	Sunflower oil dyed green labelled as extra virgin olive oil was sold throughout Europe ¹.	[27]
Italy, 2019	Olive oil	Tampering	Mislabelling Deceiving practice Ingredients replacement	Chlorophyll, soya oil, beta-carotene	To obtain the right color, chlorophyll, soya oil, and beta-carotene were added to olive oil and sold at ten times greater price ¹.	[31]
Brazil, 2020	Extra virgin olive oil	Adulteration Tampering Counterfeiting	Mislabelling Deceiving practice Ingredients replacement	Soybean oil	Nine companies sold soybean oil as extra virgin olive oil.	[32]
Wine
France, 2012	High quality wine	Tampering Substitution/ Dilution	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Low quality wine	The winery was blending low-quality wine with other wines and sold the blends as a high-quality Bordeaux wine to supermarkets ¹.	[33]
Italy, 2019	Wine	Adulteration Tampering	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Sugar	In order to increase the alcohol content, the wine company was accused for adding sugar to wine. Around 450,000 litres of wine and 7000 kg of sugar were seized ¹.	[34]
Spain, 2020	Brandy	Adulteration Tampering Counterfeiting	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Corn syrup	The Spanish authorities arrested six people that produced adulterated wine. They utilized isoglucose (e.g., corn syrup) to produce wine and alcoholic drinks such as brandy.	[35]
Meat
Europe, 2013	Beef	Adulteration, Substitution	Deceiving practice	Horse meat	Horse meat scandal in 2013 affected all EU member states and 15 other countries. It was discovered that the products being labelled as containing beef (row meat and various prepared meat products such as lasagne, spaghetti Bolognese, chili con carne, moussaka, etc.) were substituted with cheaper horse meat ¹.	[36]
China, 2014	Donkey meat	Substitution	Deceiving practice	Fox meat	Donkey meat sold at some outlets in China was recalled after tests showed the products contained fox meat ¹.	[37]
Italy, 2017	Wild boar and deer meat sausages	Substitution	Deceiving practice	Pig meat sausages	Two companies in Puglia were selling wild boar and deer meat sausages actually made from pig meat to gain profit ¹.	[38]
Mexico, 2017	Ground beef	Adulteration Substitution	Deceiving practice	Ground horsemeat	DNA testing carried out by the School of Veterinary Medicine of Mexico City revealed that 10% of ground beef products contained horsemeat. The majority of vendors claimed that they were not aware of this practice ¹.	[27]
Spain, 2017	Beef burgers	Adulteration, Substitution	Deceiving practice	Pig meat, soy and bread	A frozen products company has been accused of adding pig meat, soy, and bread to their beef burgers and meatballs. The fraud was discovered by a dismissed employee ¹.	[38]
UK, 2017, 2018	Chicken meat	Adulteration In UK	Deceiving practice in UK	Chicken meat contaminated with Salmonella	Some 1400 tons of chicken meat infested with Salmonella and originating from Brazil was stopped at the UK border and shipped back to Brazil, where it was later sold as processed meat. The practice is allowed in Brazil because the heat treatment applied during the processing of the meat kills the bacteria. The operation took place between April 2017 and November 2018 ¹.	[29]
Spain, 2018	Ham	Adulteration Tampering	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Ham with expired date	More than 10,000 hams with expired dates were discovered in rented containers. The hams were relabelled to extend their expiry date and to resell ^1,2.	[39]
UK, 2018	Lamb	Substitution	Deceiving practice	Beef	A restaurant was selling grilled beef as lamb. The fraud was discovered when a Trading Standards Officer who bought the meat sent it for analysis ¹.	[40]
UK, 2018	Lamb	Substitution	Deceiving practice	Mutton	In an Indian restaurant, the inspectors found that lamb dishes (animal < 12 months old) were actually made from mutton (older animal) ¹.	[41]
France, 2019	Chicken meat	Adulteration Dilution	Deceiving practice	Water	In order to increase the weight, water was added to chicken meat imported from Denmark ¹.	[42]
France, 2019	Meat burgers	Adulteration Substitution	Deceiving practice	Fat, skin, starch, and soya	Polish burgers (7 million pieces) sold in France contained fat, skin, starch, and soya, which are not authorized ingredients for this type of product ¹.	[43]
Sea food
Europe, 2017	Fresh tuna	Substitution	Deceiving practice	Canned tuna	Tuna was sold as fresh when it should be sold as canned tuna. Tuna can be sold as fresh only if frozen at −18 °C immediately after being caught and kept at that temperature until arrival at destination. Tuna stored in salt water at −9 °C should be canned. Fresh tuna is three times more expensive than canned ¹.	[44]
Italy, 2017	Red tuna Grouper	Substitution	Deceiving practice	Yellowfin tuna Nile perch	A well-known hotel suspected of selling low-quality fish species instead of the higher-quality fishes: red tuna was replaced by yellowfin tuna and grouper was replaced by Nile perch ¹.	[38]
Canada, 2018	Fish	Substitution Mislabelling	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Other fish species	Authorities in Canada reported that more than 40% of fish samples were replaced with cheaper ones, such as tilapia or Japanese amberjack, which can trigger health effects. More mislabelling of fish species was found in restaurants (55%) than in retailers (22%) ¹.	[39]
China, 2018	Xue Yu fish	Substitution	Deceiving practice	Other fish species	DNA testing showed that 58% of Chinese premium fish sold as Xue Yu (Mandarin for “Cod”, Gadidae family) belonged to other fish species ¹.	[45]
Italy, 2018	Wild caught fish	Substitution Tampering Mislabelling	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Farmed fish	One hundred kilos of sea bass farmed in Greece was intended to be sold at a much higher price to restaurants and fish markets as wild-caught in the Mediterranean ¹.	[46]
USA, 2018	Atlantic blue crab	Substitution Mislabelling	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Crab	Due to decreases in catches of the genuine Atlantic blue crab that could not meet consumers’ demand, a food processing company sold crab from Asia, and Central and South America labelled as more expensive Atlantic blue crab ¹.	[47]
USA, 2018	High quality fish	Substitution/Tampering Mislabelling	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Low quality fish	In New York supermarkets, more than 85% of high-quality and expensive fish species were mislabelled. The most mislabelled species included lemon sole, red snapper, and “wild” salmon ¹.	[48]
USA, 2018	Octopus	Substitution Mislabelling	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Squid	Food processing and distribution companies in Long Island have been selling cheaper squid falsely labelled as expensive octopus ¹.	[47]
Mexico, 2020	Fish	Adulteration Substitution/Dilution/Tampering Mislabelling	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Glazed fish	To prevent dehydration of the surface, a thin layer of ice can be added on frozen fish (glazing). In case of glazing, water content in the fish can be up to 57% (versus 30% of average water content in frozen fish without glazing). Glazed fish sold at retailers has no labels indicating glazing ¹.	[30]
Dairy products
Canada, 2017	Kosher cheese	Mislabelling	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Non-kosher cheese	A company from Toronto falsified certificates and sold fake kosher cheese to Jewish summer camps in 2015 ¹.	[38]
Switzerland, 2017	Milk	Adulteration Dilution Tampering	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Water	A Swiss farmer was accused of diluting milk with water. The dairy company which bought the milk sued the farmer who made a profit of 41,000 EUR and asked for compensation of 120,000 EUR ¹.	[49]
Africa, 2018	Milk powder	Dilution All types of fraud	Deceiving practice	No animal proteins	Milk powder without animal protein is a common problem in African countries such as Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana. It has also been stated that 50% of imported goods in Tanzania, including food, are fake ¹.	[50]
Colombia, 2019	Milk	Adulteration Substitution	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Whey	Milk adulterated with whey was sold daily in Colombia ¹.	[51]
Italia, 2019	Cheese	Tampering/Mislabelling	Mislabelling, Deceiving practice	Expired date	Three tons of cheese were seized due to expired date and storing under adverse conditions ^1,2.	[31]
USA, 2019	Vanilla ice cream	Substitution/Mislabelling Tampering	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Ingredients other than vanilla	An ice cream producing company was accused of selling ice cream labelled as vanilla ice cream that contained neither vanilla nor vanilla extract. The vanilla flavor was likely obtained from ingredients other than vanilla ¹.	[52]
Spices
Denmark, 2017	Oregano	Adulteration Dilution	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Ground dry leaves from other plants	In 4 out of 10 samples tested by the consumer association, pure oregano contained ground dry leaves from olive or myrtle trees ¹.	[53]
UK, 2019	Saffron	Adulteration Substitution	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Fibers from other plants	The Food Standards Agency detected fibres from other plants in saffron originating from Spain. As a consequence, almost 90 kg of saffron was seized in a factory in Alicante ¹.	[29]
Other
Italy, 2018	Tomato juice	Tampering Mislabelling	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Expired date	More than 200 tons of tomato juice was removed from the market when it was discovered that the producer falsely prolonged the shelf life of jarred tomato juice by replacing the expiry date label ^1,2.	[47]
Italy, 2018	Frozen food	Tampering Mislabelling	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Expired date	Sixteen tonnes of frozen foods have been seized after discovering that the expiry date was relabelled for selling despite having expired several years ago ¹.	[39]
Canada, 2018	Maple syrup	Adulteration Tampering Dilution	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Table (sugar) syrup	USA customs discovered that maple syrup from Quebec was diluted with cheaper table (sugar) syrup ¹.	[45]
Portugal, 2020	Eggs	Tampering, Mislabelling	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Expired date	Almost 50,000 eggs have been relabelled to extend their expiry date to increase the durability of the product ^1,2,3.	[54]
Italia, 2019	Pesto sauce	Tampering/Mislabelling	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Frozen ingredients	Six hundred kg of pesto sauce was mislabelled to mask the origin and quality. The pesto was made with frozen ingredients ^1,2.	[31]
Africa, 2018	Rice	Dilution All types of fraud	Deceiving practice	Rice husk	Rice husk sold as high-quality rice is a common problem in African countries such as Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana. It has also been stated that 50% of imported goods in Tanzania, including food, are fake ¹.	[50]
Brazil, 2019	High quality rice	Substitution Adulteration	Mislabelling Deceiving practice	Low quality rice	In 2018, more than 40% of the high-quality rice controlled on the Brazilian market was mixed with lower quality rice ¹.	[34]
India, 2020	Protein powder	Adulteration Tampering Counterfeiting	Mislabelling Deceiving practice Ingredients replacement	Steroids	A plant was manufacturing hundreds of kilograms of fake protein powder, mislabelled as produced by top USA or EU companies. The supplements contained banned steroids.	[32]

* Unauthorized Food Manipulation (types of criminal offenses) according to Croatian Criminal Law (NN 125/11, 144/12, 56/15, 61/15, 101/17, 118/18, 126/19, 84/21): ¹ Article 236: Fraud; ² Article 188: Production and marketing of a product harmful to human health; ³ Article 215: Endangering the life and property with generally dangerous act or medium [9].