"Food fraud," regular ingredients being substituted for dangerous fakes, has become a worrying trend over the past few years.

We've seen parmesan cheese made from wood pulp and Brazilian meat stuffed with flour, but now experts are worried that one of the spices everyone has in their kitchen could be fake.

Professor Chris Elliott, the director of the Institute of Global Food Security at Queen's University, is warning the garlic powder from your grocery stores could be chalk or talcum powder disguised as the real thing.

Elliott says he was tipped off when he noticed that global garlic sales are steady, even though last year huge garlic crops in China were killed by bad weather.

He's warning that the garlic powder we buy in stores could have something else mixed in to make up for the supply gaps. He studied the garlic supply chain with other researchers and can't explain where this extra garlic came from.

Why should we take his warning seriously? Well, last year Elliott uncovered that some of the oregano being sold in the UK and Ireland was really myrtle and olive leaves in disguise.

While this may seem like a harmless scam, it could have serious consequences.

Elliott warns that toxic ingredients could be mixed in to fill out batches of garlic powder, or ingredients that could trigger allergic reactions if they're not listed on the label.

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