Food Safety Focus | EMA

Hello All Team Members!

I hope this message finds all of you and your families safe and well,

In this food safety focus we will talk about something many people may not be aware of – Economically Motivated Adulteration or EMA.

What is EMA you ask? Good question.

EMA is intentionally changing the contents of a food by adding, taking away or substituting a valuable ingredient in a food product. An example of this is when a company adds a cheaper vegetable oil to a more expensive olive oil (which according to some studies has been staggering) or when syrups and sweeteners are added to honey that is marketed as pure honey and not blended. You may think this doesn’t happen very often but you would be surprised. A recent study by the FDA found that 10% of the honey they tested as pure honey was found to have added sweeteners instead. Companies do this to save money by lowering costs of production and most people don’t even realize it. Such adulteration has been known to happen in other products like cosmetics, pet food, seafood (substituting one fish for another), Juice, baby formula and spices. This is what we call Food Fraud.

I’ve provided a link here for your reference.


https://www.fda.gov/food/compliance-enforcement-food/economically-motivated-adulteration-
food-fraud


The story in 2008 about baby formula that was produced overseas, where a plastic was added to give the product a higher protein amount resulted in 300,000 illnesses, 50,000 hospitalizations and at least 6 deaths. It was a terrible tragedy to say the least. Research reviews and market testing when buying food products for your home and when taking in new customers, please.

I hope all of you and your families stay safe and healthy and as always thank you so much for all you do each and every Day!

Justin Straka Food Safety Manager

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Author: Trish Metts