When is a black truffle not a €1,000-a-kilo rare French fungus? When it fails the smell test, reports The Guardian.
In their battle to see off competition from pale and cheap Chinese imitations, French trufficulteurs (truffle cultivators, as they like to be known), have enlisted the help of scientists.
And as the truffle season gets into full swing, French sellers are seeking to identify the smells that make the highly prized tuber melanosporum or black truffle – found in south-west France and known as the "black diamond" – distinct from its distant and considerably cheaper cousin, the tuber indicum from Sichuan and the Himalayan foothills.
A team of experts from the National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA) at Avignon is attempting to establish the "olfactory qualities" of the European truffle.
"From the key components of the smell, we should also be able to determine the soil from where the truffle comes," Christian Ginies, head of the INRA research team told Reuters.
"In any case we will be able to tell the difference between a truffle from Périgord and a truffle from China. Knowing the characteristics of a product better can help with better communication about truffles, but also help to deal with fraud."
Read more of this report from The Guardian.