Staple foods undergo various types of substitution involving quality discrimination. One of the most well-known substitution cases is the admixture of gluten containing cereals in gluten-free products. Gluten induces allergenic reactions to many individuals for whom gluten-free food has gained much popularity. However, many traders violate the regulation of compulsory declaration of the presence of elements prone to create allergenic reaction through the fraudulent admixing of gluten-containing cereals in gluten-free diets. Peanuts are also another allergen mixed into bulk cereals, legumes, oilseeds, and bulk samples. Lupin flour is also used as a soybean protein substitute. In addition, wheat flour, gluten, and soybeans are frequently adulterated with melamine to increase their apparent protein content.
Being one of the major constituents of milk, the milk fat consisting of 97–98% triacylglycerols is present in all dairy products that contain milk and accounts for 3 to 5% in m/m of cow’s milk. However, milk fat is costlier than most other edible fats; thus, production of milk derivatives is also an expensive process. Therefore, manufacturers often replace it with cheaper fats, such as vegetable fats or animal fats, not only for reducing manufacturing cost and to achieve an additional economic benefit but also to hide the effect of fraudulent dilution.
Due to higher market value and limited production, some oils are more at risk of being adulterated. Extra virgin olive oil is high quality olive oil. It is an important source of fatty acids and natural antioxidants. It has a high market value for its nutritional property, excellent taste, and aroma. However, the market price difference between extra virgin olive oil and other edible oils encourages the dishonest traders to adulterate it with other cheaper oils with similar fatty acid and sterol profiles. Hazelnut oil, seed oils, esterified oils, refined olive oils, and olive–pomace oils are examples of such oils. Virgin coconut oil is another type of high-value oil, which is often adulterated with palm kernel oil, palm oil, and lard. Cod liver oil possesses some therapeutic effects on human health due to the presence of fatty acids and other nutritional values. It is usually adulterated with animal fats, especially lard, chicken fat, mutton fat, and beef fat. Pure sesame oil, having a unique flavor and high nutrition, is adulterated with various cheaper oils, such as soybean oil, corn oil, rapeseed oil, and palm oil. In this category, the other possible adulterations are adulteration of soybean oil to groundnut and sunflower seed oil, adulteration of sunflower seed oil to safflower oil, adulteration of borage oil to evening promise oil, adulteration of rice bran oil to mustard oil, and adulteration of argemone Mexican seed oil to other edible oils. Mineral oils, such as sesame oil, linseed oil, cottonseed oil, and castor oil are found in high-value oils. Minimally processed oils or cod-pressed oils are often replaced by refined oils. Adulteration of vegetable oil with lard and beef tallow to minimize production cost of margarines and shortenings is also reported.
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