What happens when you find something in food products that you think shouldn’t be there, or just doesn’t look or smell right?
For those people who have had the misfortune of finding something wrong with food they have purchased, and reported it, chances are Dr Jim Carter is the man who dons his detective cap and investigates.
He literally looks into your food.
Working out of the Queensland Health laboratory at Coopers Plains, nothing gets past Jim.
Over the years he’s had all kinds of foods sent in for investigation, including food of a strange colour, bits of plastic, metal fragments, insects, you name it he’s seen it.
“Food manufacturers don’t get it right 100% of the time,” Jim said. “When food is sent into us that came from a manufacturer, often Environmental Health Officers will go to the premises and look for the source of the contamination to work out what’s happened.
“Sometimes it’s something as simple as a piece of glass or metal that may have come from the machinery., We look at the item under a microscope to see what it is and its chemical composition, and then figure out where it came from.”
Jim’s official title is Supervising Scientist for Food Chemistry, which sits within Queensland Health’s Forensic and Scientific Services facility in Coopers Plains. Jim works with Environmental Health Officers, along with police and the Coroner’s Office to dig deeper into things that need scientific investigation.
Personally, I always look at the ‘use by’ date on food…always
Jim says he’s seen everything in this job, and that’s why he likes it.
“Every day, and every item is different,” Jim said. “For example, right now I have a case where there is some glass that was found in food. We will investigate what that glass is made of, what is its composition, and then look to match it in in the glass that surrounds the manufacturing process to see if we can find a match.
“Sometimes there can be faults in the manufacturing process, and that’s a case when members of the public find something in the food. They then contact Environmental Health Officers, and then it comes to us. We will examine it, and Environmental Health Officers often go to the premises to try to find the source of the contaminations.
“Every day something turns up, and they are always different. I have something right now that was found in a cream bun, and we’ve worked out that it is part of a common pharmaceutical capsule. Things like that are unusual but we find bits of wire, glass, rodent droppings, and insects in food.”
Jim acknowledges that the number of contaminated items that come in from food products, is a very tiny amount compared to the amount of food consumed and purchased every day across the state. The other part of his job is to keep an eye on what manufacturers claim on the packaging.
“We mainly do two things here in the lab,” Jim said. “One is to look at the composition of food. Is it what the package says it is? Is there something there that shouldn’t be? Is there too much salt, or fat? Is the meat or product in the description actually what it claims to be? The other thing is complaints about food that doesn’t seem right, say it tastes funny, or it doesn’t look right, or there’s a strange item in the food, we then work to figure out what the foreign matter is or why it tastes funny.
“Personally, I always look at the ‘use by’ date on food…always. Some foods have ‘best before’ written on them, and you can use common sense in this case, so look at the food, and smell the food…you’ll know straight away if it isn’t right.”
Jim has to think long and hard about the oddest thing he’d found over the years.
“We had a lamb ‘ready meal’ that had something in it that looked like a fish bone, or a spiky piece of bone, that was an odd one. Fortunately, we worked with a museum and on investigation we worked out it was actually part of the spine of a sea urchin.
“I can maybe understand that in a fish curry, or a seafood meal, but not in a lamb dish. That was a weird one!”
So next time you open some food and something doesn’t seem quite right, remember Jim and his team have got your back Queensland!