Food Adulteration

INDEX:
1) Introduction
2) Theory
3) Why is Food Adulteration Done ?
4) Methods of Food Adulteration
5) How can Adulteration be Prevented ?
6) Some of the Common Food Items which contains Adulterants.
7) Symptoms of Food Adulteration.
8) Government Measures.
9) Cocnclusion.
10) Bibliography.
INTRODUCTION
Food adulteration is a menace, which all of us face regularly. Detection of
adulteration in food is an essential requirement for ensuring safety of foods
we consume. Although sophisticated lab techniques are accurate, precise,
and reliable, yet they are costly and time consuming. It is essential to
develop reliable “quick screening tests” which a common person can
perform at the level of household so as to have a broad picture of status of
adulteration in his food in case of doubt. Although quick methods of
detection of adulterants, developed by various government and private
agencies for household application, have been presented.
Theory:
Food Adulteration can be defined as the practice of
adulterating food or contamination of food materials by
adding a few substances, which are collectively called
adulterants.
Adulterants are the substance or poor quality products
added to food items for economic and technical benefits.
Addition of these adulterants reduces the value
of nutrients in food and also contaminates the food, which is
not fit for consumption. These adulterants can be available
in all food products which we consume daily, including dairy
products, cereals, pulses, grains, meat, vegetables, fruits,
oils, beverages, etc.
 Why is Food Adulteration done?
The process of contaminating food or adding to the food components is a common phenomenon
in developing countries.
For instance: Milk can be diluted by adding water to increase its quantity and starch powder is
often added to increase its solid content.
Listed below are the main reasons for adulterating food products:
Practised as a part of the business strategy.
• An imitation of some other food substance.

• Lack of knowledge of proper food consumption.
• To increase the quantity of food production and sales.
• Increased food demand for a rapidly growing population.
• To make maximum profit from food items by fewer investments.
 Methods of Food Adulteration:
The most common adulterants which have been added are given below:-
 Adding certain chemicals for faster ripening of fruits.

 Mixing of decomposed fruits and vegetables with the good ones.
 Adding certain natural and chemical dyes to attract consumers.
 Mixing of clay, pebbles, stones, sand, and marble chips, to the grains,
pulses and other crops.
 Cheaper and inferior substances are added wholly or partially with the
good ones to increase the weight or nature of the product.
 How can Adulteration be Prevented?
 According to the National Health Service and Food Research
Institute, several food products have been adulterated to
increase the quantity and make more profit.
Here are certain safety tips to avoid Adulteration:-
• Avoid dark coloured, junk and other processed foods.

• Make sure to clean and store all the grains, pulses and other food
products.
• Wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly in running water before
they are used.
 SOME OF THE COMMON FOOD ITEMS WHICH CONTAINS
ADULTERANTS ARE:
 Symptoms Of Food Adulterations
Diarrhea, nausea, allergic reaction, diabetes, cardiovascular

disease, etc., are frequently observed illnesses upon
consumption of adulterated food. Some adulterants have shown
carcinogenic, clastogenic, and genotoxic properties.
Some food adulterants do not participate in health degradation. Those

only affect the nutritional parameter and reduce food quality. Species
substitution of coffee products is such an example. Other adulterants are
potential source of mild to severe illness. The financial loss associated
with hospitalization and medication is also not negligible.
 GOVERNMENT MEASURES
It entails punishment of six months imprisonment or

payment of INR 1000 as fine, in cases where a
person adulterates any article of food or drink, so as
to make such article noxious as food or drink,
intends to sell such article as food or drink, or
knowing it to be likely that the same will be sold as
food or drink.
 CONCLUSION:
Food adulteration is an evolving concept due to increased detection
methods for contaminants (“we're catching more fraud”) as well as the
growing opportunity for fraudsters to profit from the acts (expanding
global markets). The food adulteration risks are being considered from
sources across the food protection spectrum including food quality, food
safety, food fraud, and food defense. Any food product that is a public
health threat is classified as the effect of adulteration though there may
be many different types of causes or motivations. Food fraud is a
broader term that includes the cause of motivation of the incident. To
stay ahead of the growing scope, scale, and threat, new countermeasure
approaches are being developed to more efficiently and effectively
detect and deter.
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
 WEBSITES:-
1) www.scribd.com
2) www.slideshare.net
3) www.sciencedirect.com
4) www.google.com
5) www.wikipedia.org

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INDEX:

• An imitation of some other food substance.

 Adding certain chemicals for faster ripening of fruits.

Here are certain safety tips to avoid Adulteration:-

• Avoid dark coloured, junk and other processed foods.

Diarrhea, nausea, allergic reaction, diabetes, cardiovascular

Some food adulterants do not participate in health degradation. Those

It entails punishment of six months imprisonment or

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