It's great when store shelves are overflowing with an abundance of goods. They're full of products with labels that say "Eco," "Natural Ingredients," and other enticing things.
The bad news is that some of these products are outright counterfeits, which at best will waste your money, and at worst can be harmful to your health.
Let's take a look at the most counterfeit products and learn how to verify their authenticity.
10. Red caviar
This delicacy is a true treasure trove of nutrients. It's rich in iodine and contains phosphorus, magnesium, iron, vitamin D, B vitamins, calcium, and potassium. However, all these natural riches are unavailable if you buy a counterfeit made from seaweed and gelatin.
How to recognize a fake:
- When purchasing caviar, pay attention to the ingredients; it shouldn't contain gelatin, eggs, oils, or milk. Instead, it should list the name of the fish from which the caviar was obtained, salt, and a couple of preservatives. For example, E400 (also known as glycerin) and E200 (to prevent bacteria from growing in the caviar).
- At home, the easiest way to spot a fake is to drop a couple of eggs into boiling water. If the eggs lose their shape and start to dissolve, they're not real. Eggs from genuine fish won't change shape, and the whites will curdle.
9. Sour cream
Beautiful, brightly colored jars of sour cream beckon you to grab them from the shelf. However, some of these products have little in common with classic sour cream, made from cream and starter culture.
They contain vegetable fat instead of animal fat, and soy protein instead of milk protein.
How to recognize a fake:
- To test the authenticity of sour cream, dissolve a small amount in boiling water. Counterfeit sour cream will precipitate, while the real product will dissolve completely.
- Whenever possible, try to buy sour cream from a local producer, as it is not economically feasible for them to produce a counterfeit product aimed at local consumers.
8. Honey
It's one of the most popular counterfeit food products not only in Russia but also globally. Moreover, "linden honey" can be purchased not only in stores but also at village fairs.
They add water, starch, and sugar syrup to it, and sell old honey that's been remelted several times, devoid of any nutritional value. And these are far from the only, but only the most common, methods of adulterating honey.
How to recognize a fake:
- Good honey should not have foam, and its taste should not be sour (a sign of an unripe or spoiled product).
- Real honey has a rich aroma, and the more syrup it contains, the weaker the aroma.
- To determine if thickened honey is genuine, rub a drop between your fingers. Feel the roughness and grains? That's sugar processed by the bees. If it feels like you're rubbing fat, you have real honey.
7. Shrimp
When we buy frozen shrimp, we also buy frozen water. After all, these crustaceans are frozen immediately after catching. A single "shrimp kilogram" can contain between 10 and 40 percent ice.
Shrimp packaging indicates the caliber—that is, the number of shrimp per kilogram. For example, 100/200 (meaning there are 100 to 200 shrimp in one kilogram). However, this only applies if the shrimp are unpeeled. However, if the shrimp are peeled or headless, the numbers indicate how many shrimp are contained in 1 pound (0.45 kg).
Another problem with shrimp is that when bred in coastal areas, they are usually injected with antibiotics (most often chloramphenicol). This makes these crustaceans less susceptible to disease.
How to recognize a fake:
- It is better not to use peeled shrimp, as they may be colored fish fillets.
- Buy only Atlantic shrimp, they contain the least amount of antibiotics.
- If the bag of small shrimp is heavy, there will most likely be ice under their shells.
- If it's not real shrimp but an imitation, it will usually say so on the label, so read the product description carefully.
6. Saffron
One of the most popular and expensive spices in the world, saffron imparts a beautiful color and aroma to dishes. It also has a preservative effect, meaning food prepared with saffron can be stored for several days.
However, the cost of genuine saffron spice is very high. This is not surprising, as it takes 200,000 crocus flowers to produce just one kilogram of the spice.
How to recognize a fake:
- Real saffron colors water a rich red-orange. Substitutes (turmeric and safflower) color it yellow.
- 90% saffron is produced in Iran, but it is also grown commercially in India and Spain. Therefore, when purchasing saffron, pay attention to the country of origin.
- If possible, smell the offered spice. Real saffron has a very rich aroma, with a slight bitterness.
- It's best to buy saffron in thread form; it's dark orange in color, thinned on one side and slightly flattened on the other. It should be free of any curvature or fringing.
5. Sausages and hot dogs
The foods so beloved by Russians are also the favorites of dishonest producers. Not enough meat? No problem! But there's a ton of starch!
And instead of pork and beef, they use cheaper meat—chicken. And even that isn't a luxury, either, and sausages labeled "Chicken" may actually contain no more than 101 Tbsp of chicken meat.
How to recognize a fake:
- The further an ingredient (like chicken meat) is from the beginning of the composition, the less of it there is.
- The shorter the list, the better. Ideally, it should include meat, salt, water, and spices. The more ingredients, the less meat the sausages and hot dogs will contain.
- The stronger the sausage smells, the worse it is. Aromatic seasonings are usually used to disguise spoiled products or sausages with a high soy content.
- The surface of a good sausage should be smooth, without a watery base, and the pieces of fat should be of the same size.
4. Bread
A fluffy bread with a fragrant crust and a snow-white crumb is a delight to shoppers and number one in any food ranking. However, the pristine whiteness of the "inner world" of bread can be a result of the use of so-called "improvers" (urea, sodium metabisulfite, calcium peroxide, etc.) used to bleach flour.
Even if you buy black bread, you could end up with a fake. Instead of the real thing, you might end up with bread dyed with synthetic dyes.
Finally, instead of premium flour, unscrupulous manufacturers use grade 1 flour. Unfortunately, counterfeit flour can only be identified through laboratory testing.
How to recognize a fake:
- Natural bread has a shelf life of no more than 24 hours without packaging and 72 hours in packaging. If the packaging promises a longer shelf life, it means it was made without preservatives.
- High-quality bread will quickly regain its shape when gently pressed on the surface. If an indentation remains, the bread is underbaked and the crumb is too sticky.
- An overly sweet and unnatural aroma of black bread indicates the presence of a dye (for example, caramel).
- Artificially colored bread containing dyes such as cocoa and carmine has a very dark and uniform brown color. In real black bread, the flour fibers are unevenly distributed, and the coloring is also uneven.
3. Smoked fish
Tasty, aromatic fish is an indispensable accompaniment to beer, and it's delicious on its own. Do you know why smoked fish sometimes has a distinctive aroma? It's from a flavoring called "liquid smoke." It can cause an allergic reaction, and in some countries, artificial "liquid smoke" is banned as a carcinogen.
How to recognize a fake:
- Fish treated with liquid smoke has a very strong smoked smell.
- If the fish is smoked according to all the rules, its meat has a yellowish tint, and fat (of the same tint) is located in the stomach area.
- The cut fish, smoked with liquid smoke, has the color of a regular herring, and almost no fat is released.
- Therefore, if you buy smoked fish, don’t be shy and ask the seller to cut it.
2. Olive oil
For the Italian mafia, the olive oil counterfeiting business is a veritable gold mine. As early as 2011, Italian investigators reported that approximately 801 TP3T of olive oil imported from Italy was counterfeited or misdeclared.
So if you buy «real Italian olive oil,» be prepared for the fact that it may turn out to be a low-grade counterfeit mixed with the cheapest vegetable oil imported from Tunisia, Greece, and Morocco.
How to recognize a fake:
- Check the ingredients; it should only contain olive oil (Natural, 100% Olive Oil). If the words "Mix," "Polivio," or "Estella" appear, it's a blend, which may contain only 1% olive oil.
- It's good if the label contains the word "DOP." This means the entire oil production cycle, including bottling, was carried out in a single, controlled region.
- High-quality olive oil will noticeably thicken when refrigerated, with flakes and sediment forming at the bottom. At room temperature, the oil will return to its normal state.
1. Bottled natural water
Water tops the list of the 10 most counterfeited products. The average rate of counterfeit bottled water ranges from 25 to 301%, and in some countries, it reaches 801%.
Chemezov proposed solving this problem by labeling water. In the meantime, we'll have to try to distinguish good bottled water from bad on our own.
How to recognize a fake:
- The label must indicate the artesian well number, as well as the bottling date, expiration date, degree of mineralization and hardness, water composition and its source (well or water supply).
- There are two categories of bottled water: first and premium. The first category includes regular water that has been filtered through an industrial filter. Only those that meet the requirements for artesian and spring water are admitted to the premium league.
- There should be no impurities or sediments in the water.