For any company sourcing ingredients based on protein content, the melamine contamination of pet food in 2007 certainly raised concerns with the test methodologies for total protein which are based on determining nitrogen content. As you will recall, melamine will increase the nitrogen level in a food fraudulently raising the protein content. This scheme may never have been detected if it werent for the deaths of pets in the United States. And it provided the impetus for FDA to give a serious look at stopping economically motivated adulteration.

Publishing in the July issue of Comprehensive Review in Food Science and Food Safety is a scientific review of Total Protein Methods and Their Potential Utility to Reduce the Risk of Food Protein Adulteration. Its good to see the science community looking into ways to detect fraud in foods.