Adulteration in Food: Deep Rooted Social Evil

Among man’s everyday needs, food plays a major sustaining role. From the simple dish to the most elaborate haute cuisine, food preparation is as varied and rich as man’s taste.

The lure of riches and general apathy towards mankind has led to adulterants being added to food from the simple stones in rice to the more harmful brick and boric powder.

Adulteration of food commonly defined as “the addition or subtraction of any substance to or from food, so that the natural composition and quality of food substance is affected.

Adulteration is either intentional by either removing substances to food or altering the existing natural properties of food knowingly. Unintentional adulteration is usually attributed to ignorance’s, carelessness or lack of facilities for maintaining food quality.

The common man, unfortunately, remains largely unaware of these adulterants and consume food without thorough checks. Some of the common adulterated foods are milk and milk products, atta, edible oils, cereals, condiments (whole and ground), pulses, coffee, tea, confectionary, baking powder, non-alcoholic beverages, vinegar, besan and curry powder.

Adulteration of food cheats the consumer and can pose serious risk to health. Mere visual inspection does not serve the purpose especially when adulteration has assumed high degree of sophistication. Consumer awareness is the remedy for eliminating the evil of adulteration and sale of substandard food article.

Food Adulteration.

What is Adulteration?

Food is the basic necessity of life. One works hard and earns to satisfy our hunger and relax (enjoy) later. But at the end of the day, many of us are not sure of what we eat. We may be eating a dangerous dye, sawdust, soap stone, industrial starch, and aluminum foil and so on! Contaminated foods and drinks are common sources of infection. Often, we invite diseases rather than good health.

Food adulteration is an act of intentionally debasing the qualityof food offered for sale either by the admixture or substitution of inferior substances or by the removal of some valuable ingredient. Food Adulteration takes into account not only the intentional addition or substitution or abstraction of substances which adversely affect nature, substances and quality of foods, but also their incidental contamination during the period of growth, harvesting, storage, processing, transport and distribution.

“adulterant” means any material which is or could be employed for making the food unsafe or sub-standard or mis-branded or containing extraneous matter;

Food is adulterated if its quality is lowered or affected by the addition of substances which are injurious to health of food offered for sale either by the admixture or substitution of inferior substances or by the removalof some valuable ingredient.