Incidents of major food adulteration in Taiwan between 2011 and 2015

•The food adulteration incidents concerned in recent years are described.•The analytical methods for the identification of these incidents are summarized.•The effects of the adulterants in these incidents on health are described.

Global availability and accessibility of food ingredients and the desire to produce food products at lower costs by industry have led to an increase in the incidents of fraud around the world, and Taiwan is no exception. This review outlines the major cases of food adulteration that occurred in Taiwan between 2011 and 2015, including the adulteration of food additives with plasticizers, starch products with maleic anhydride, olive oil with copper chlorophyll, lard with recycled cooking oil, and processed soymilk curd with dimethyl/diethyl yellow. Governmental responses and the analytical methods developed by the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration to address these incidents are also described. These methods were specifically developed to analyze the adulterated ingredients in finished food products. Other analytical methods to detect various adulterants are summarized and compared in this article. In conclusion collective action by regular monitoring along with improved analytical method and regulations will help to minimize adulteration problems in the future.