Counterfeiting and falsification of goods can be detected in any product group. Coffee is no exception to these rules. For the manufacture of adulterated coffee Cheap coffee raw materials and components that are not related to coffee production can be used.
How to distinguish fake coffee from real coffee?
Distinguish real coffee it’s quite easy to avoid counterfeit ones, but only after you’ve bought the coffee and prepared the drink. Fake product differs in specific smells and shades, it is difficult to prepare correctly, it can have a bitter, sharp and unpleasant aftertaste.
How is instant and ground coffee counterfeited?
If we consider the number of counterfeit products, counterfeit coffee is very common in the segment. This can easily be explained by popularity instant coffee in our state. Raw materials can be used to simulate the appearance of instant coffee Low quality or foreign components. To get high volume ground powder cereals and cereals are added to the raw materials legumes. Such a product does not completely dissolve in the cup; a dense sediment forms at the bottom, and ready drink has an unpleasant taste, which manufacturers of low-quality products enhance with the help of flavorings and food additives.
Adulterated coffee does not contain normal amounts. It is added to the resulting powder artificially using chemical substances. The volume of injected substance is never standardized. Sometimes manufacturers of counterfeit products introduce caffeine using processed pharmaceutical tablets. Such foreign particles are easy to notice in instant coffee. In a similar situation, drinking a ready-made drink from such a product is dangerous for human health, since the amount of caffeine contained in the product is higher established norm several times as standard. The coffee adulteration methods described above are used both for ground product, and for grain.
In the production of counterfeit products, cheap varieties of the product are used, cereal crops and chicory, as well as discarded coffee beans. In order to produce counterfeit coffee beans, counterfeiters will have to put in some effort. Experts replace the original coffee beans with beans or clay imitations. Naturally, such a product only looks like coffee beans in appearance, but even an experienced craftsman is unlikely to be able to prepare a ready-made drink from it.
How to spot counterfeit coffee on the counter?
Before making a purchase, it can be very difficult to distinguish counterfeit coffee from the original one, but if you pay attention to some selection criteria, the risk of purchasing counterfeit coffee is significantly reduced.
- Cost of coffee– the first thing you should pay attention to when purchasing. High-quality coffee is not a cheap product, so if the price tag has a too nice number, then the packaging instead natural product may contain malt or chicory.
- The second criterion is package. Counterfeit products are not packaged in expensive packaging. For such purposes, counterfeit manufacturers use plastic containers, and manufacturers of original products use glass or tin containers, thanks to which the aroma of coffee is preserved for for a long time. If your choice fell on a product in tin can, then pay attention to the packaging design. Manufacturers original product The product is marked sazu on the packaging. There are no labels or stickers on the tin container. The country of origin, expiration date and barcode must be indicated on the packaging of coffee. The first three digits of the code are the country of manufacture code. Pay attention to the quality of the product packaging. Blurred, unclear or too bright colors indicate that the product inside the container is not of adequate quality.
- An important criterion is name of coffee And product packaging design. Very often, manufacturers of counterfeit products use coffee names that sound like common brands. The packaging of the product can also match the style of the registered brand. Such plagiarism is not an indicator of quality finished product, and can also spoil the image of the manufacturer.
A lot of coffee manufacturers package the product in foil bags. This packaging uses a special valve, which makes it possible to evaluate the aroma of the packaged product. The packaging of ground coffee must be airtight. Manufacturers use a vacuum to specially pump air out of it; as a result, the packaged product resembles dense “briquettes”. If there is air in such a package, then this is evidence of a violation of the packaging, the coffee will lose its specific aroma, and there may also be counterfeit goods inside the container.
The problem of counterfeiting and falsification is relevant for almost any category of goods, and coffee is no exception. To produce fake coffee, both cheaper coffee raw materials (wet, over-roasted, defective beans, coffee production waste) and ingredients that are not at all related to the coffee industry (malt, chicory, burnt sugar, beans, etc.).
It is not difficult to distinguish fake coffee from real coffee, especially if you have already made a purchase. Not quality coffee issue foreign odors and flavors, incorrect “behavior” during cooking, simply too bitter, harsh or unpleasant taste.
If we talk about the volume of falsifications, then such cases are most common in the instant coffee segment, which is logical, considering what exactly instant drink considered the most popular in our country. Fake instant coffee uses low-quality raw materials and foreign additives suitable to imitate appearance coffee. Ground beans, rye, barley, and various cereals can be added to the powder. Such coffee does not dissolve in the cup, but forms a brown suspension that tastes unpleasant.
However, the problem of taste and aroma is often solved by false manufacturers without special effort using flavorings and food additives. And although the taste and smell of the resulting drink may be quite tolerable, it poses a rather great danger to health.
Fake coffee almost never has normal caffeine content. It can be introduced artificially, using chemicals, and its amount in this case turns out to be almost arbitrary - from very high to almost zero. Some counterfeiters go further: without bothering to introduce artificial caffeine at the powder production stage, they simply add crushed pharmaceutical caffeine tablets to it (in this case, their inclusions are not difficult to notice in the powder). This is also very dangerous for health - the dose of caffeine in such cases turns out to be much exceeded, which poses a danger to the condition nervous system, heart, digestive organs of the person drinking such a drink.
Techniques similar to those described are also used when counterfeiting ground and even bean coffee. With ground coffee, everything is very simple: usually cheaper varieties of coffee are used instead of expensive ones, foreign cereals or chicory, as well as defective coffee. Coffee beans it is more difficult to fake, however, nothing is impossible here: instead coffee beans beans and even clay imitations can be used. Of course, such “coffee” imitates only the appearance, and preparing even a semblance invigorating drink it won't work out.
At the purchasing stage, it is sometimes quite difficult to distinguish a fake, however, If you pay attention to a number of signs, the risk of buying fake coffee is relatively low.
The first thing you need to pay attention to is the price. Good coffee simply cannot be cheap, so if the price tag has a suspiciously attractive number, then most likely you will find malt or chicory in the package instead of coffee. The second point is packaging. Fake coffee is never packaged in expensive packaging. Typically, fake producers use plastic, usually transparent, jars, while large companies pack their coffee in glass or tin jars, which allow them to preserve the aroma longer.
When buying coffee in a can, you should pay attention to the design of the packaging. Large manufacturers usually apply markings directly to the can itself (no stickers, glued labels, etc.). Of course, the coffee package must indicate the country of origin, expiration date and barcode. In this case, the first three digits of the barcode must match the code of the declared country of origin. Finally, the last point regarding the packaging is its quality. Blurred, unclear or, on the contrary, overly bright colors on the packaging indicate that its contents are most likely of poor quality.
It is worth paying attention to the name of the coffee and packaging design. Often, manufacturers offering obviously low-quality coffee use names that are similar to well-known brands, as well as packaging designs similar to those used by large companies. Such “theft” of designs and names does not speak in favor of the manufacturer and the product they produce.
In conclusion, it is worth mentioning one more point. Today, many manufacturers who pack coffee in foil bags use special valves that allow you to evaluate the aroma of the coffee mixture. The presence of such a valve is a very good indicator. In addition, the packaging with ground coffee must be vacuum sealed. Typically, manufacturers pump out all the air from it, resulting in fairly dense “briquettes.” The presence of air in a coffee package indicates, at a minimum, that the packaging is damaged and the coffee may be stale, and at most, that the origin of the product is questionable.
Fake coffee was found in seven retail outlets in the markets of the Minsk region and the capital itself famous brand. This is the first case of counterfeiting of Jacobs coffee in Belarus.
They sold counterfeit goods, masquerading as a product of a popular brand, in the markets of the Minsk region and the capital itself. It looks like a completely ordinary package of the favorite coffee of many Belarusians. Even with a detailed study, it is not immediately clear that this is a fake. Only experts, after numerous checks, render their verdict - the product is indeed counterfeit. Evidence of this is the packaging, which differs from the original one. It is difficult for the average consumer to imagine what such “clothes” will be filled with. But definitely not high-quality content.
Early on Saturday morning I go to the market. I often even buy groceries there. There are hundreds, or even thousands, of such weekend buyers. Products, one after another, fly into customers' bags. They are usually in a hurry - the markets are crowded, they want to buy everything and leave quickly. Who will look closely at what’s on the packaging? Famous brand? Great, let's take it. And so - from one counter to another. It never occurs to anyone that cunning scammers thought of counterfeiting popular brands. In the minds of the consumer, the name itself is a guarantee and a sign of quality. And how can you determine for yourself that this is a fake?
“I usually buy only one brand of coffee,” customer Elena Andreevna from Vileika admits to a correspondent. – I usually come to the capital for it – the price is not so scary. But in fact, sometimes you compare the taste of a product from different packs - it’s different. And the foam on brewed coffee is not so thick. One inevitably wonders – why? But I don’t even think that I bought a counterfeit. I usually think like this - probably the storage conditions were different or the production features changed. There is nothing left to do but trust the sellers.
The goods were confiscated, what next?
Scammers rely on inattentive buyers to create counterfeit goods. Proof of this is the verification of compliance with all requirements when selling tea and coffee by the State Control Committee and the inspection of the Ministry of Taxes and Duties of Belarus in the Minsk Region. Only in the markets of the capital region, violations were found in all 9 inspected retail outlets. Tea and coffee were sold completely illegally - without documents confirming the purchase and receipt of goods. As a result, products worth 120 million rubles were confiscated. Among them - mainly coffee, including the famous trademark. It was possible to buy an invigorating drink in 200-gram counterfeit packages from seven sellers at once.
In Belarus, this is the first case of counterfeiting of coffee of our brand,” confirmed the representative of the official supplier of Jacobs coffee in Belarus, marketing manager Sergei Kalinovsky. – It was not difficult to determine that the packaging was indeed counterfeit. The fact is that the company simply does not produce 200 gram coffee. Most often it is the “soft” packaging that is counterfeited. Its production does not require large material costs, which is what scammers take advantage of.
Now specialists from the State Control Committee are finding out where the illegal goods got into the distribution network. The “fate” of the confiscated products will soon be decided by the court. One thing is true: such counterfeits can also be found in other markets that have not yet been checked.
It is better to buy such critically imported products in large chain and government stores or supermarkets, advise the control department consumer market and the service sector of KGC in the Minsk region. – From 70 to 80 percent of detected violations occur in the market.
What to choose - a store or a market?
In fact, both there and there, the products should have the same documents. Another thing is how responsible sellers are and how attentive buyers are.
Any product must be accompanied by quality documents, and the invoice will indicate who the supplier is. In stores they take this issue more seriously - they simply do not accept goods without documents. But in the market, individual entrepreneurs, as they say, work for themselves and some can trade without having such documents. Of course, this is a violation,” explained the deputy head of the consumer market organization department food products Ministry of Trade of Belarus Natalya Melnikova.
With rare exceptions, someone demands that the seller show a quality certificate or any other document, although every buyer has the right.
I have never once been asked to show any documents, although I have been trading on the market for three years now,” says seller Ekatarina. – Basically, they are simply interested in where the goods came from, when the expiration date expires, and take their word for it.
Is falsification a trend?
Literally at the beginning of the year there was already a buzz around this drink in Belarus. Then, counterfeit Nescafe instant coffee was discovered in many markets and small shops across the country. A large batch of almost 5 thousand counterfeit packages worth 60 million rubles was seized from sale. The coffee was packaged in packs of 2, 75, 150, 320 and 750 grams.
An examination of the dubious drink showed that it was sold in fake packages coffee drink containing oil from barley and rye grains. The control identification mark on the packages was either counterfeit or simply missing. The production date and expiration date are not stamped in a factory manner, as it should be in reality, but are simply printed along with the image. Will any buyers pay attention to such little things? Hardly.
By the way, the batch of fake Nescafe was supplied from Russia. Not long ago, a workshop producing counterfeit coffee was liquidated in Moscow. On the site of demolished residential buildings, the “businessmen” built a kind of workshop, warehouse and barracks to house illegal workers. It was in such a production facility, in completely unsanitary conditions, that the “best” coffee was produced, and then distributed throughout many Russian regions.
Should you carry the packaging with you or trust the seller?
It is certainly easier to distinguish fake coffee from real coffee if you have already made a purchase. Due to structure, foreign odors or taste qualities many will doubt the authenticity of the product. You can detect falsification without leaving the counter.
Alternatively, you can buy coffee, for example, in the official store of the manufacturer. There will definitely be no fakes there. Then take the packaging with you to the market, don’t be shy and just compare. Without an analogy, few buyers will immediately understand that this is a fake,” said Sergei Kozenko, head of the consumer market and service sector control department. – But don’t forget that in Lately Manufacturers, trying to avoid counterfeits, often change packaging design.
Next you should pay attention to the control identification mark. There are two options: a sign on a purple background is for imported products, and a sign on a light green background is for domestic products (in this case, the packaging must indicate that “made in Belarus”). Often, there is simply no such sign on counterfeit packages, or some scammers may confuse its color. Also, the production date and expiration date are rarely stamped in the factory. They are simply printed along with the image. And if you want to erase this data, you won’t be able to. They wear off from the original packaging and become paler over time.
Another important detail is the price. They try to sell the counterfeit drink at a reduced price, so they will sell out faster. A suspiciously low number on the price tag is another reason to doubt the authenticity. Counterfeit coffee is rarely packaged in high-quality packaging. Usually the so-called “soft” packaging is counterfeited because it is cheaper. So if you buy coffee in a glass or tin jar, you are less likely to be deceived. And this packaging allows you to preserve the aroma longer, which is why large companies use it more often.
By the way, it is instant coffee that is often counterfeited. For its production, cheaper or low-quality raw materials are used, various additives, which only imitate the correct appearance. Ground beans, rye, barley, and cereals are added to the powder. This drink hardly dissolves in a cup. Grains can also be counterfeited, instead of which beans or clay imitations are poured into the packaging (!). Even just brewing a cup of invigorating drink will be difficult...
And yet, cases of counterfeit coffee in Belarus are still the exception rather than the norm. And if a counterfeit product hits the shelves, it quickly disappears thanks to inspections. But still, simple vigilance is still the best guarantor of quality.
Natalia BORISOVETS
Today we will talk about how to distinguish natural coffe from fake.
We all love to enjoy a cup of aromatic and delicious coffee in the morning, but sometimes our expectations are not met - the smell is not the same and the taste is somehow strange. For coffee gourmets, this is a real disappointment.
So how can we avoid getting into this situation again? Here are 9 ways to distinguish real coffee from a fake surrogate:
- Advice first- if you open a pack of coffee and do not hear a strong specific coffee aroma, then perhaps roasted acorns, chicory and others have been added to the pack cereals. Therefore, first of all, pay attention to the aroma - it should be strong and pleasant.
- Advice second- take a transparent glass and pour some grains into it, add cold water and stir vigorously. If you see that sediment has formed at the bottom or the grains have scattered, this means that they are made of starch or clay.
- Third advice - when cutting natural coffee beans a thick shell and core are clearly visible. So pay attention to the grain structure.
- Advice fourth — ground coffee pour into a transparent glass and add a little cold water if the liquid has become Brown color, but it tastes bitter, which means it’s chicory. Natural coffee will only slightly color the water brown and will not give off any aftertaste.
- Advice fifth— to check whether the grains are colored, put them in a clean napkin and rub them a little. If there are dirty marks on the napkin, then the grains are painted with lead paint.
- Sixth advice - a substitute added to natural coffee reduces its transparency and gives it more dark color. A coffee lover who has tried enough different coffees will be able to notice such a nuance.
- Advice seventh- unripe and spoiled beans have a blue-green or black color, so we repeat again - pay attention to the structure of the grain.
- Advice eighth. Ground coffee often contains flour beans, which can be easily identified - they crumble into powder, while natural ground coffee has a uniform structure.
- And finally ninth advice - from fake ones coffee beans there is no groove, and if you look closely, you will notice that it seems to be “carved” on the surface of the “grain”.
Drink real coffee and enjoy its taste and aroma.
Coffee "Raffaello"
Warming winter coffee drink with coconut liqueur
Ingredients:
Espresso -300 ml
Coconut liqueur - 6 tablespoons
Cream 10% – 100 ml
Whipped cream - to taste
Coconut flakes - 1 teaspoon
1. Prepare strong espresso in a coffee machine. If you don't have it, cook according to standard recipe strong coffee in Turk.
2. Rinse thin-walled cups hot water. Put in each coconut liqueur, warm cream, pour espresso on top.
3. Decorate with whipped cream and coconut.
Coffee is the favorite drink of many people, which allows them to wake up in the morning and relax after a hard day of work. Therefore, more and more unscrupulous manufacturers are counterfeiting popular brands. Next, we will take a closer look at how to distinguish a fake Jacobs from the original.
The most typical information falsifications of coffee. So the fake Jacobs coffee, for example, was in a large tin can, similar to a Nescafe can, which was pasted over with a paper label with the name “Jacobs”. There is no barcode on the fake can, but it does indicate that this coffee is produced in the USA (in fact, Jacobs is produced in Germany).
The jar is also equipped with a plastic lid, which is used after opening the tin one. At the same time, real Jacobs instant coffee is sold only in glass jars, and ground and beans are sold in vacuum packaging.
What else is worth paying attention to?
- You need to avoid regular retail outlets and markets, where you can often find counterfeits and defective goods. Coffee must be purchased in specialized stores that can provide quality certificates for the entire range of their products.
- Experts also recommend buying coffee for the first time directly from the manufacturer’s specialized store and be sure to save the packaging. All other times you need to take the packaging with you and compare it in all other stores. Don't be shy about comparing packages. This will avoid counterfeit and low-quality products.
- Also, original products must have a control identification mark. If the product is intended for domestic market, then such a sign will be on a light green background. Otherwise, the background has a purple tint. In addition, scammers quite often confuse colors and forget to put an identification mark. Therefore, you need to pay attention to this first.
- The expiration date and production date of the coffee must be stamped on the packaging using the factory method. On fakes, such information can be applied with ordinary paints and printed on a printer. In addition, such inscriptions can be easily erased, which cannot be said about the original products.
- We also pay attention to the price. Quite often, fake coffee is cheaper. In addition, they also offer promotions and discounts so that customers quickly buy up the goods.
- Next, let's look at the packaging. It must be of high quality without damage or deformation. In most cases, to save money, scammers pack coffee in low-quality soft packaging. Therefore, it is better to choose tin or glass jars, which are more difficult and more expensive to fake.
- Instant coffee is also quite often counterfeited. Therefore, it is better to choose custard.
- We check the appearance of the coffee, which should have a beautiful, uniform shade without foreign impurities.
- You can also test your coffee using cold water. You need to pour a spoonful of coffee into a glass of cold water. All foreign impurities should settle to the bottom. In addition, high-quality coffee should not stain the water.
How to distinguish a fake by barcode?
We know that a barcode is a product marking and a very indicative characteristic that indicates the country of origin and thus helps determine the authenticity of the product. How to decipher a barcode? Barcode sections: country code, manufacturer code, product name, consumer properties, size, weight, ingredients, color, check digit.
00-09 – USA, Canada
30-37 – France
40-44 – Germany
460-461 – Russia, CIS
471 – Taiwan
49 – Japan
50 – England
52 – Greece
54 –Belgium
56 – Portugal
590 – Poland
599.64 – Finland
690 – China
70 – Norway
72 – Israel
73 – Sweden
789 - Brazil
80-83 – Italy
84 – Spain
86 – Yugoslavia
869 – Türkiye
90-91 – Austria
It is important that the barcode is genuine. You can check it yourself. To do this you need to do the following:
- add up all the numbers in even places;
- multiply the resulting amount by 3; the result - let's call it X - remember;
- add all the numbers in odd places without the first (control) number;
- add the number X to this amount;
- the resulting sum is called YZ;
- Let's leave only Z from it;
- Let's perform a simple arithmetic operation: 10-Z;
- if the result matches the check digit in the barcode, then it is not a fake.
Let's check the Jacobs coffee barcode: 4000508082504 (check digit – 4) 0+0+0+0+2+0=2 2×3=6 4+0+5+8+8+5=30 30+6 =36 From 36 we leave 6. 10-6=4 – the result corresponds to the check digit.
t-coffee
There may not be any external signs to help differentiate. There may be fakes if the suppliers are not verified. and it’s even quite possible that the manufacturer has started to cut corners)) but this depends only on them) You can easily switch to another coffee, especially now there is a large assortment, different degrees of roasting, different varieties, everything can be found for every taste) if you are interested, write, I will help you select coffee :)
Anonymous
I’ve been buying ground Jacobs Monarch for many years now, and I’ve also noticed more than once that if the package with the promotion is cocoa coffee, it’s better not to buy it.
I haven't taken ground for a long time. Because I also got caught on acorns a couple of times. Only in beans. If there is anything, you can grind it yourself.
Alexei
And I think what kind of crap Jacobs Monarch has become. It dissolves poorly, and even among the light brown sublimated grains, 1/3 of the dark grains are of unknown origin (such as in granulated coffee). Of course, when you buy soft packaging, you won’t see its composition. It's a shame. After purchasing the last pack (brought, by the way, from Russia), I began to rummage through the Internet and came across this article. So what should I drink now?
Nikolay Anatolyevich
I work in the trade of "Jacobs" of bullshit quality - a bunch, but it is different in color, the color of the "bullshit" one is dull. About 3-4 months ago in the Boguslavsky district, a machine manufactured by Jacobs was seized from a house. There's a ton of it in the markets and you can see the price. It cannot be cheaper than from the official Kraft Foods distributor.
Papatoot
Yes, unfortunately, now very often it is Jacobs (as one of the least expensive and most popular coffees) that is actively counterfeited. There are also quite a few fakes on the market. Often, in pursuit of excess profits, it is precisely such “wholesale bases” and bazaars that distribute counterfeit goods. You won't find this in a normal store. Kraft has already sent more than one counterfeit paper to consumers.
conclusions
On Russian market There is a considerable amount of counterfeit instant coffee. It is made either from low-grade, wet beans, or malt, figs, chicory, burnt sugar, caramelized products, and coffee bean shells are added to the raw materials. Such a product usually has an empty taste, with bitterness and acidity uncharacteristic of coffee. Coffee with “illegal” additives cannot be considered 100% pure, since its quality is determined precisely by its content.
On the one hand, the main victims of falsification are we, the buyers, and on the other, large coffee production concerns. They are losing the reputation they have built over decades of hard work. Many connoisseurs of such coffee brands as Jacobs (Germany), Nescafe (Switzerland), Elite Classic (Israel), Cafe Pele (Brazil), Tchibo (Germany), Mossopa (Holland) , “Folgers” (USA), “Maxwell House” (USA) and others have probably already noticed that it is better to buy your favorite coffee
in specialized stores or departments of large trading enterprises, and not in small wholesale markets.
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