8.1 Food Frauds and Yerba Mate. Possible Connections
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(6) Net weight
(7) Best-before date
(8) Data concerning the producer, including the food registration.
(9) Packaging date
(10) Instructions for storage
(11) Instruction for use
(12) Advertising information.
The next sections explore briefly possible food frauds in the yerba mate sector,
with some possible countermeasure.
8.2 Undeclared and Fraudulent Addition of Carbohydrates
The fraudulent addition of carbohydrates in yerba mate products is basically limited
to sugars only. In detail, the interested sugars are as follows: saccharose, glucose, and
fructose. From the legal angle, the fraudulent addition is considered irregular because
of the qualitative presence, at least in Brazil, while the amount of total and separated
sugars is not important enough. With relation to simple sugar addition, the product
‘yerba mate with saccharose’ is allowed in Brazil at least (Ministério da Saúde 2005;
Schneider 2017). Naturally, this quality should be considered as cheap enough if
compared with real yerba mate. By the viewpoint of EMA ‘players’, the addition of
sugars is quantitatively important, while the simple presence of undeclared sugars is
sufficient to define yerba mate products as ‘adulterated’(Schneider et al. 2018). The
basic reason is to mask the unacceptable or simply low-quality features of yerba mate
ascribed to flavour and colour. In addition, simple sugars such as glucose, fructose,
and saccharose are cheap enough: their presence in the product cannot increase the
real production cost, while the final price can be imposed with enhanced values
on the market. The obvious weight augment is a ‘plus’ point in this situation. In
fact, n grams of yerba mate leaves + m grams of saccharose = q grams of yerba
mate product, and q > n. The fraudulent yield is q/n: the higher the added sugar, the
higher the amount or marketed yerba mate… with the same price of regular and legal
product!
It has to be noted that the quantity of sugars in yerba mate has to decrease during
processing (blanching). As a result, a part of lost sugars is re-added to yerba mate (the
normal process operates in the opposite direction with the augment of polyphenols
and anti-oxidants) (Dartora et al. 2011).
The fraudulent addition of sugars may pose serious health and safety risks in
yerba mate similarly to other products (Diniz et al. 2014; Manning and Soon 2014):
(1) Moisture can increase because sugars are easily fermentescible, with correlated
diminution of shelf life values. There is naturally a theoretical risk in terms of
microbial spreading
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(6) Net weight
(7) Best-before date
(8) Data concerning the producer, including the food registration.
(9) Packaging date
(10) Instructions for storage
(11) Instruction for use
(12) Advertising information.
The next sections explore briefly possible food frauds in the yerba mate sector,
with some possible countermeasure.
8.2 Undeclared and Fraudulent Addition of Carbohydrates
The fraudulent addition of carbohydrates in yerba mate products is basically limited
to sugars only. In detail, the interested sugars are as follows: saccharose, glucose, and
fructose. From the legal angle, the fraudulent addition is considered irregular because
of the qualitative presence, at least in Brazil, while the amount of total and separated
sugars is not important enough. With relation to simple sugar addition, the product
‘yerba mate with saccharose’ is allowed in Brazil at least (Ministério da Saúde 2005;
Schneider 2017). Naturally, this quality should be considered as cheap enough if
compared with real yerba mate. By the viewpoint of EMA ‘players’, the addition of
sugars is quantitatively important, while the simple presence of undeclared sugars is
sufficient to define yerba mate products as ‘adulterated’(Schneider et al. 2018). The
basic reason is to mask the unacceptable or simply low-quality features of yerba mate
ascribed to flavour and colour. In addition, simple sugars such as glucose, fructose,
and saccharose are cheap enough: their presence in the product cannot increase the
real production cost, while the final price can be imposed with enhanced values
on the market. The obvious weight augment is a ‘plus’ point in this situation. In
fact, n grams of yerba mate leaves + m grams of saccharose = q grams of yerba
mate product, and q > n. The fraudulent yield is q/n: the higher the added sugar, the
higher the amount or marketed yerba mate… with the same price of regular and legal
product!
It has to be noted that the quantity of sugars in yerba mate has to decrease during
processing (blanching). As a result, a part of lost sugars is re-added to yerba mate (the
normal process operates in the opposite direction with the augment of polyphenols
and anti-oxidants) (Dartora et al. 2011).
The fraudulent addition of sugars may pose serious health and safety risks in
yerba mate similarly to other products (Diniz et al. 2014; Manning and Soon 2014):
(1) Moisture can increase because sugars are easily fermentescible, with correlated
diminution of shelf life values. There is naturally a theoretical risk in terms of
microbial spreading