SMEs Perceptions on Food Adulteration in Brunei Darussalam

Food adulterants have recently emerged as one of the biggest issues facing modern society and become widespread in developing countries, despite numerous actions and punishments that have been enacted. Food adulteration is the deliberate or accidental addition of poor-quality ingredients added to the excellent quality of food items that are prohibited by law to increase the product's weight, volume, or appearance, economic benefits and misleading consumers. Islamic ethics place a high value on honesty and integrity, and lying to others, including in economic transactions, is severely forbidden this includes selling and consuming food that has been tampered with or tainted in any way is prohibited by Islamic principles. This covers the addition of dangerous or impure ingredients to food and the use of dishonesty or deception to market food items. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to assess how SMEs in Brunei Darussalam perceive food adulteration to raise awareness of the negative effects of performing and consuming adulterated food. According to interviews with five local SMEs that produce food, there is a high level of awareness about food adulteration since the producers believe that the practice is widespread in the business world. Hence, governments, industry players, scientists and academic researchers should collaborate to invest in the creation of robust infrastructure and rules for food safety, as well as in the creation of innovative and improved techniques for identifying food adulterants.