Fraud in food industry has been conducted for centuries in the world. Thousands of years ago the earliest attempts was with products such as tea, olive oil and spices. Today a wide variety of foods are subjected to fraud and in most cases it is undetected. However the majority of incidents has no direct risk to public health and the intentions are mainly economical. Spices as more vulnerable to fraud and saffron due to its high price is the most tempting to fraudulence food products in the world. It has been stated that “nothing is adulterated as much as saffron”. Fraudulent in saffron has been reported to be a frequent act throughout the history as long as 600 years, particularly in Middle Ages in Europe. In that era to defend the purity of saffron punishment for fraud was very serious. In the 15th century in Italy a special armed police was established to defend the originality of this spice. Similarly in France a serious punishment was acted upon adulterators by the order of Henry II. Now a world market of almost one billion dollars for saffron which in cases sells up to $6 per gram in European shops, is an attractive base for temptation of frequent adulteration. On average 40 percent impurity with other parts of saffron flower and even cases of up to 90 percent impurity has been reported. Whereas with such high price for saffron only 0.5 percent of floral waste and 0.1 percent other materials has been stated as the standard. Saffron is considered to be pure if complied with the requirements of the ISO 3632 standard. Fraud happens more often with the powdered saffron. Iran with a cultivation area of 80,000 ha and an average yield of 3.5 kg/ha produces 256 tons saffron of which 133.5 tons is exported, with a foreign revenue of 400 million dollars annually. With such amount of saffron, it is not unusual to expect more adulteration in this country than any other part of the world. The most frequent adulterations undergone in saffron has been classified as follows: substances to increase weight, including moisture and impregnation with different chemical materials and food ingredients, adding other parts of saffron flower mainly stamens and styles, mixing with the organs of other plants, most commonly flowers from Carthamus tinctorius, Calendula officinalis, Capsicum annum, Curcuma longa, Punica granatunm, Arnica Montana and corn silk, adding animal substances such as dried meat, fibers, mixing with artificial substances such as gelatine fibers and finally addition of organic colorants such as martin yellow, attrazine and orange-yellow.

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