The April issue of the Journal of Food Science analyzes the most adulterated ingredients -- in other words, the most common instances of food fraud. Food fraud, defined in a report commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security, is a "collective term that encompasses the deliberate substitution, addition, tampering or misrepresentation of food, food ingredients or food packaging, or false or misleading statements made about a product for economic gain."
Though not all the contaminants are necessarily harmful (i.e. grapefruit juice), they are not listed on the ingredients list of given foods, nor are they supposed to be in the product. Adulterants are used to cut corners and save money, and in the process contaminate the food. In short, using grapefruit juice in a carton that contains 100% orange juice is misleading, and illegal.
The Journal of Food Science research focuses on the database FoodFraud.org, which contains 1,054 records of scholarly research and 251 media reports.
Check out the 7 most adulterated ingredients:
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