Truffle farmers in France have launched a campaign to help people identify prized Perigourd truffles.
Many of those farmers believe that “fake” Chinese imports have been doctored by unscrupulous chefs with synthetic aromas sprayed on so that they smell like a real truffle.
The Perigord truffles (tuber melanosporum) are referred to often as “black diamonds” and fetch an average €500 per kilo. It is one of the world’s most expensive foods by weight.
Those from China and the foot hills of the Himalayas (tuber indicum) get a mere €30 per kilo. But if doctored the consumer winds up paying as if it was the real thing.
France’s national consumer fraud body in 2012 found that between 10 and 15% of the samples seized and sold as Perigord truffles were really the lesser variety from China.
France gets about 25 tonnes a year of Chinese truffles, while finding it difficult to harvest even 50 tonnes of their own. At the beginning of the 20th century, production was 800 tonnes.
The French government is to provide €200,000 a year to develop the industry.The estimated 20,000 French trufficulteurs have plans to plant some 300,000 to 400,000 trees annually, but it will take at least ten years for production of new fungi.
Experts said it was becoming easier to fool consumers as the exceptionally high price of black truffles means that only small slivers were added to food, making it hard to taste the difference.
The best black truffles have a subtle aroma but an earthy flavour. Only the white truffle from the Piedmont region of Italy competes in terms of cost and scarcity.
