Fraud in grains and cereals

Grains and cereals provide a great deal of the global population’s calories and are immensely important to many countries’ economies. Much of the adulteration that takes place in different grain crops is primarily of economic concern, such as varietal or species substitution, organic fraud, and genetically modified organism adulteration. However, some issues exist that also have human health implications, namely, the adulteration of protein products with toxic melamine, or the mixing of gluten-containing cereals with nongluten products (a threat to celiac individuals). Several different analytical methods have been evaluated for grain quality control, including spectroscopies, analyte separation techniques, types of mass spectrometry, stable isotope measurements, immunosorbent assays, DNA methods, or combinations thereof. When industry combines appropriate analytical testing with preventative risk mitigation plans that are based on known vulnerabilities to fraud, quality grain products can make it from the farm to the hands of consumers.