How is black pepper trading fraud detected?
Detecting black pepper trading fraud is no simple matter
Black pepper is one of the most widely used spices in the world, which attracts a lot of attention from various scammers. Pepper is traded by weight, which allows various rogue traders to influence the weight of the pepper in the packaging in various ways.
The addition of husks and other 'impurities' to the package
The weight is influenced, for example, by adding black pepper husks to whole peppercorns or other 'ingredients' that have no place in the contents. However, these fraudulent practices, which often happen even with pepper commonly offered in domestic supermarkets, can be detected thanks to the method developed.
Scientists at the Technical University of Denmark have been researching the possibilities of detecting such unfair practices in the vanilla and black pepper trade. ""We have developed a method that allows us to determine whether black pepper is pure or whether it contains added bulk materials such as husks, papaya seeds and other waste,"" explains scientist Amelie Sina Wilde.
How quality control will be carried out in the future is a question
The method relies on spectrometry technology in conjunction with chemo-thermal methods. Based on the sample taken, the scientists are able to accurately define the contents of the entire large export bag and thus determine the quality and purity of the shipment. Quality control can therefore be carried out quickly and efficiently.
This is university research that will take some time to find its way into practice. However, the method discovered gives hope to consumers that one day tools will be used that will give them confidence that they are really only buying quality pepper and nothing else in it.
Here at .pepper..field, we achieve absolute quality and purity through several controls, from hand-selection right on the ground in Cambodia, to food-grade laser technology that scans the final package for us, so you'll never find anything else in a package of Kampot pepper. ☺
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