Comstock's magazine 1119 - November 2019

n TASTE A student prepares an oil sample to test for its quality at the UC Davis Olive Center. colored with chemicals like industrial chlorophyll. Rosenberg believes the European Union is well ahead of the United States when it comes to addressing challeng- es relating to food authenticity or fraud. The United Kingdom even has special police enforcement units to deal with food fraud. But with supply chains now globalized and with so much money to be made, stopping it is a herculean task. Herculean, but not impossible. Rosenberg says tools exist that allow sci- entists like him to identify the specific “fingerprints” that confirm oils, seafood and spices are actually what consumers think they are. By examining food down to the molecular level, researchers can build a biological profile to determine a product’s authenticity. But doing that re- quires a level of testing and data collec- tion over a course of years, and that takes money. More importantly, it takes the political will to go after violators the way some other countries do. “Unfortunately, I do not see at this time a similar effort in the U.S. in gen- eral and California in particular to stop fraud, and we need to do it,” he says. “We 38 comstocksmag.com | November 2019 are a major agricultural producer, and we have to protect our products, and we have to protect our farmers. And we have to protect California products from be- ing wrongly accused of being involved in food fraud somewhere else in the world.” Chelsea Minor, director of consum- er and public affairs for Raley’s, says verification by the retailer is critical in preventing fraud. While the company doesn’t have a tracking system for every item in its stores, she says “we do com- plete comprehensive analysis on Raley’s private label items,” and it does sample testing on seafood products, which are at a high risk of mislabeling or fraud. A 2016 study from the ocean con- servation group Oceana indicates that about 20 percent of all the fish obtained from grocery stores, restaurants and seafood markets was mislabeled. Inex- pensive white escolar, for instance, is often substituted for far pricier tuna. An earlier Oceana study, in 2013, found that 38 percent of all the “red snapper” sold in Northern California was actually the much more common rockfish. “We send about a hundred samples each year to a certified independent lab- oratory to identify their species,” Minor says. “As of today, 100 percent of our fish species tested was correctly labeled.” Rick Mindermann, store director for Sacramento’s landmark Corti Brothers grocery market, says one way for custom- ers to feel confident they’re buying the real deal is to shop at stores they know take pride in developing trusted sources in their supply chain. “We work hard to develop good rela- tionships with all of our vendors,” Mind- ermann says, noting they are always looking for red flags that might indicate a supplier is cutting corners. “We’re prob- ably more inquisitive with our vendors than some other outlets. Darrell Corti still tastes every bottle of wine this store sells.” n Rich Ehisen is a freelance writer and the managing editor of the State Net Capitol Journal. His work has appeared in Government Technology, Sunset, San Francisco Magazine, California Journal, Sacramento Magazine and the Lexis Legal Network. On Twitter @WordsmithRich.

Comstock's magazine 1119 - November 2019 | Page 38