{"id":110699,"date":"2020-07-01T10:09:12","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T14:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=110699"},"modified":"2020-09-30T14:54:32","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T18:54:32","slug":"ucf-is-developing-new-nanotech-to-detect-food-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-is-developing-new-nanotech-to-detect-food-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF is Developing New Nanotech to Detect Food Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"

A University of Central Florida researcher<\/a> is developing new technology to make sure people are getting the food they think they\u2019re eating.<\/p>\n

The work is funded by a recent $490,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Agriculture and Food Research Initiative grant to create an easy-to-use and highly sensitive device to detect food fraud, such as the substitution of pork in beef products.<\/p>\n

Adulterated food results in people paying more for their food than it\u2019s worth, as sometimes foods are bulked up with less expensive filler products. Eating the wrong food can also violate some religious restrictions on foods consumed and be a concern for people with food allergies.<\/p>\n

Adulterated food is a problem for the U.S. food industry as well, costing it $10 billion to $15 billion a year, according the Consumer Brands Association.<\/p>\n

Leading types of reported fraudulent food are fish and seafood, oils and fats, alcoholic beverages, meat and meat products, dairy products, grains and grain products, honey and other natural sweeteners.<\/p>\n

Current tests to detect adulterated food are either expensive and complicated or are easy to use and cheap, but not as effective, says<\/p>\n