Exploring the Unknown: Dirty Tricks in Dirty Matrices – identifying fraud in the black pepper supply chain

Black pepper is one of the most popular spices; it is used globally as a flavouring or seasoning in a wide variety of different cuisines and accordingly is produced in several countries globally. Pepper, as with most other herbs and spices, is typically grown on smaller farms, reaching the consumer after passing through a series of complex and opaque intermediaries, the ideal scenario for various frauds to be perpetrated. Food fraud is a major concern of governments and industry bodies, as well as consumers themselves, representing health risks to consumers and economic risks to governments and industry.

The talk will introduce some typical types of fraud found in black pepper, introducing adulteration, which is the most serious concern, but also touching upon geographic origin fraud, which represents a growing concern in a market where tariffs and tax evasion represents a growing financial risk to business and government.

The talk will cover the analysis strategy, from sample preparation through to analysis on the Agilent Revident LC-QTOF platform; the analysis of black pepper is complicated by the nature of the matrix, which is considered to be one of the harsher on both the UPLC system and the MS itself. The talk will then follow through the data processing workflow using Agilent MassHunter Explorer to obtain robust biomarkers which can be used for a number of purposes, but primarily to detect various frauds within the product being tested.

Presenter: Nicholas Birse (Lecturer in Mass Spectrometry, Institute for Global Food Security School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast)