Oritain Global chief executive Dr Helen Darling describes
the amount of global food fraud as "phenomenal". Photo by
Gerard O'Brien.
Talk to Dr Helen Darling about deviousness in the global
food industry and prepare to have your eyes opened.
From an estimated 44,000 dying each year from fake vodka in
Russia to cheap cuts of pork being dyed and chemically
treated to sell as beef in China and "Scotch" whisky being
produced in China and India - she has heard it all.
"There's so much mislabelling and fraud that happens in
food," she said.
Dr Darling is chief executive of Oritain Global Ltd, a
Dunedin-based company with global links that is pioneering
commercial food origin systems - independently and
scientifically certifying the origin of food.
The company has worked with everything from meat, dairy
products and honey to vegetables, fruit, coffee beans, seeds,
wine and wool.
By looking at the properties in a food or product that were
natural, they could map those properties and conclude where
it was from and whether or not it was authentic.
Describing it as "almost like food justice", Dr Darling said
the company was fighting for the rights of consumers,
producers and regulators in the food industry.
The history of Oritain dates back to when the EU was
investing in research into origin traceability systems.
Dr Darling, who has a PhD in public health from the
University of Otago and an MA from Victoria University, was
attending conferences overseas and realised no-one else was
doing it.
In terms of New Zealand exports there seemed to be quite a
gap, and a group of scientists decided something needed to be
organised for the Australasian area.
It was decided the most sustainable way to really capitalise
on the opportunity was to make it a commercial model.
Oritain was set up as a commercial entity, along with an
international science board, comprising six well-known
scientists from around the world.
Science had been coupled with commercialisation but with a
buffer between the two, meaning both could maintain their
integrity, she said.
The company, which has been trading for nearly three years,
started globally from "day one". It started very small and
while it was still very small was going through a growth
phase.
It worked in two ways with customers - branded certification
and also risk mitigation, for those producers who wanted to
know if they had a problem before their customers did.
The amount of food fraud globally was "phenomenal" and New
Zealand produce was not immune, she said.
Many New Zealand producers were naive in thinking that
"nobody does anything bad" with their good food when it was
exported off-shore.
That was not true. A lot of "deviousness" occurred and a lot
of mislabelling.
A name, residential address, and (preferably residential) telephone number is required from readers who comment on ODT Online. These details will not be visible to site visitors.