Introduction
Food is a fundamental requirement of existence. The food we eat is absorbed by our bodies and used to fuel metabolic processes and maintain our physical and mental well-being. Food is required for growth as well as for a variety of other biological processes. Vegetables, fruits, beans, pulses, grains, and other foods are included in our regular diet, as well as a variety of other foods. It is possible to consume all of these uncooked or prepare them into delicacies to be enjoyed. However, you may have seen very thin milk due to the addition of water, white, yellow, or black pebbles in raw pulses, white microscopic stones mixed with rice, and other anomalies in recent years. Adulteration is defined by the mixing of materials with food items.
We Indians create our meal with a range of ingredients that are unique to us. Unfortunately, in recent years, the purity of the chemicals we utilise has become a significant source of concern. Food adulteration is quite frequent in poor countries, with figures from the year 2012-13 indicating that 20 percent of all food is either contaminated or of substandard quality on the continent. Food adulteration is nothing more than lowering the nutritional value of diet by introducing adulterants or eliminating essential nutrients from the food. Food adulteration is extremely damaging to your health and can have a long-term negative impact on it.
Food Adulteration
In the United States, adulteration is considered a criminal offense, and when food does not satisfy the legal criteria established by the government, it is deemed to have been adulterated. Food adulteration occurs when compounds that deteriorate the quality of food are purposefully or unintentionally added to it, regardless of whether the substances are intended or unintended. So food adulteration can be described as the contamination or adulteration of food or food materials through the addition of harmful substances to the food or food materials being contaminated.
Types of food adulteration
1. Intentional adulteration
Food adulteration falls under this category, and it is frequently done on purpose to increase the volume, texture, flavour, or stability of the items. This is done in order to maximise the profit margin for the seller, as previously stated.
Examples: Adding sand, brick powder, and stones
2.Incidental Adulteration:
Incidental adulteration occurs when foreign components are accidentally introduced into a food as a result of ignorance, negligence, or incorrect storage conditions.
For example, food contaminated with insects as a result of inadequate packaging.
Examples of food adulteration
Milk
You may have come across a number of instances where milk has been tampered with. This is primarily due to the fact that it is quite easy to adulterate milk. Milk is frequently contaminated with substances such as water, detergent, chalk, fat, and urea. Khoya is tainted with paper, refined oil, and skimmed milk powder, among other things.
What is the best way to check?
It is quite simple to determine whether or not milk has been tampered with. All that is required is the pouring of a drop of milk onto a polished slant surface. If the milk flows freely without leaving a trace, it has been tampered with. Ordinarily, pure milk produces a white trail in its wake.
Honey
Water and table sugar are added to the mixture in order to increase the amount of honey. According to studies, the majority of honey brands include antibiotics, and use of such honey may result in the development of antibiotic resistance. This has the potential to cause liver damage as well as blood-related diseases.
What is the best way to check?
In order to improve the amount of honey produced, water is needed. Using a cotton wick dipped in pure honey, you can determine whether or not honey has been tampered with. After that, you should try to light it with a matchstick to see if it works. Honey will not burn if there is water present in it.
Chili Powder
Brick powder, for example, is used to adulterate chili powder by mixing it with other chemicals that seem similar to it.
What is the best way to check?
It is necessary to add a teaspoon of chilli powder to a glass of water in order to determine whether or not it is contaminated. If the colour of the water turns to crimson and earthy, the chilli powder has been tampered with.
Turmeric Powder
Metal yellow, lead chromate, and chalk powder is used to boost the amount of turmeric powder in the final product.
Coffee powder
In order to increase the quantity and colour of coffee powder, tamarind seeds and chicory powder are mixed in with it. This is harmful to your health because it can result in diarrhea, giddiness, and joint pain among other symptoms.
HEALTH HAZARDS OF FOOD ADULTERATION:
Some of the health risks connected with certain food adulteration are as follows:
- When mineral oil is added to edible oils and fats, it has the potential to cause cancer.
- It has been shown that lead chromate can induce anaemia, paralysis, brain damage, and abortions when added to turmeric powder and spices.
- Ingesting lead from drinking water, natural and processed foods can result in lead poisoning, which can cause foot drop, sleeplessness, constipation, anaemia, and mental retardation in some people.
- Additions of cobalt to water and liquors have been shown to cause cardiac injury. Copper, tin, and zinc are also known to cause colic, vomiting, and diarrhoea in infants.
- Mercury in fungicide-treated cereals or mercury-contaminated seafood can cause brain damage, paralysis, and even death if consumed in large quantities.
- The use of non-approved colours, or permitted food colours such as metal yellow, at levels higher than what is considered safe in coloured foods, can result in allergic reactions, hyperactivity, liver damage, infertility, anemia, cancer, and birth defects.
Conclusion
Food adulteration is the deliberate degrading of the quality of food that is offered for sale, either by the addition or substitution of inferior ingredients or the removal of a desirable ingredient. It has been proven that adulterated food is associated with a variety of chronic ailments such as liver disease, diarrhea, stomach trouble, lathyrism (cancer), vomiting, dysentery (food poisoning), joint discomfort, heart disease, and other illnesses.
Considering that food adulteration is a major source of concern in every part of the world, there is a substantial amount of literature on the subject, including information on how to identify it. Several methods for detecting the presence of food adulteration include lengthy and complex sample preparation procedures prior to analysis, which necessitates the use of high-end equipment and makes the entire process difficult to conduct and time-consuming.