Is the food we eat SAFE



Is the food we eat safe?

There is an old adage that food is eaten not only through the mouth rather the sight of the food is in itself a major attraction and appetite enhancer. Most of the times it is the first impression that is created by the appearance of food that serves as the determinant of the taste of the food. It is rare to find a person who will not become impressed by the sight of any particular food and feel compelled to purchase it or eat it. Thus in order to enhance the appearance of the food item and thereby its marketability many additives like artificial colours, are added. This is one major reason for addition of many non-edible substances to foodstuffs. Another reason for this is that every consumer wants to get maximum quantity of a commodity for as low a price as possible. This attitude of the consumer gets coupled with the intention of the traders to increase the margin of profit resulting in the adulteration of foods.

The addition of such colours and flavours is not a recent phenomena rather the fascination with a good appearance of food has been there since the dawn of human civilization. However during the pre industrialization times only natural spices and colours were used for this purpose. The progress in technology led to discovery of newer chemicals that served as cheaper alternatives for flavouring, colouring and the preservation of food. The impacts of these synthetic additives to the foodstuffs were felt after repots of adverse health impacts came up from various quarters.

Quite a few food additives and contaminants pose serious threat to the health of consumers. The contaminants can be deliberately added or they can even get into the food from the environment. Additives refer to substances that are not a part of the food rather they serve other purposes like colourants, flavouring agents, preservatives, sweeteners and stabilizers. Since the last few decades many commonly food additives have come under question and many also been banned due their relation to various heath disorders in consumers. Food adulteration is a major issue within the purview of food safety.

Food adulteration is a phenomenon whereby the quality of the commodity gets reduced through addition of a baser substance and / or removal of vital elements. The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 aims at making provisions for the prevention of adulteration of food. The Act extends to the whole of India and came into force on 1st June 1955.

WHAT IS ADULTERATED FOOD?

An article of food shall be deemed to be adulterated -

a. if the article sold by a vendor is not of the nature, substance or quality demanded by the purchaser or which it purports to be;

b. if the article contains any substance affecting its quality or of it is so processed as to injuriously affect its nature, substance or quality;

c. if any inferior or cheaper substance has been substituted wholly or partly for the article, or any constituent of the article has been wholly or partly abstracted from it, so as to affecting its quality or of it is so processed as to injuriously affect its nature, substance or quality;

d. if the article had been prepared, packed or kept under insanitary conditions whereby it has become contaminated or injurious to health;

e. if the article consists wholly or in part of any filthy, putrid, disgusting, rotten, decomposed or diseased animal or vegetable substance or being insect-infested, or is otherwise unfit for human consumption;

f. if the article is obtained from a diseased animal;

g. if the article contains any poisonous or other ingredient which is injurious to health;

h. if the container of the article is composed of any poisonous or deleterious substance which renders its contents injurious to health;

i. if the article contains any prohibited colouring matter or preservative, or any permitted colouring matter or preservative in excess of the prescribed limits;

j. if the quality or purity of the article falls below the prescribed standard, or its constituents are present in proportions other standard, or its constituents are present in proportions other than those prescribed, whether or not rendering it injurious to health.

Thus, additions of water to milk amount to adulteration, within the meaning of sub-clauses (b) or (c).

Food adulteration has become the order of the day and consumer education is the need of the hour, assert experts. A common mistake committed by most consumers is to blindly pick up any product without reading the label, which includes details like batch number, expiry date, manufacturer’s name and address. Sometimes it is a spurious or duplicate product and can be mistaken for a reputed brand. The consumer has to keep his eyes open while buying a product. Given below is a list of the commonly used food adulterants in India:

| |Foods Commonly Involved |Diseases & Health Effects |

|Adulterant | | |

|Lathyrus sativus |Mixed in other pulses like cow pea (arhar/toor |Lathyrism (crippling spastic paraplegia or |

|(Khesari dal) |dal) or as Khesari dal alone |Lower limb paralyses) Khesari Dal has a |

| | |toxic Amino acid known as Beta oxalyl amino|

| | |alanine. Cases Widely reported from Bihar |

| | |and parts of U.P |

|Stearin (fat derived from palm |Spurious desi ghee (clarified butter), yellow |Digestive problems, prolonged usage may |

|oil) |butter |cause accumulation of cholesterol in the |

|& tallow (animal fat) | |blood vessels |

|Oxytocin hormone injection |Traces reported from |Even traces are enough to cause |

|(Administered to cattle to |Bovine Milk samples |Abortions, still births, sterility & kidney|

|increase the milk output) | |damage |

|Washing powder |Ice Cream |Gastric irritation leading to peptic ulcers|

| | |in extreme cases |

|Argemone seeds |Mustard seeds |Epidemic dropsy, |

|Argemone oil |And oil |Glaucoma, |

| |Responsible for the Dropsy outbreak in India |Cardiac arrest |

| |during the nineties | |

|Methanol |Cheap Alcoholic liquors. |Blurred vision, blindness, death |

| |Responsible for Hooch tragedy and other similar | |

| |instances throughout the country. | |

|Sand, marble chips, stones, filth |Food grains, pulses etc. |Damage digestive tract |

|Foreign leaves or exhausted tea |Tea |Injurious to health, cancer |

|leaves, saw dust artificially | | |

|coloured | | |

|Molasses |Honey |Digestive problems |

|Chalk powder | Sugar, salt |Contaminated chalk powder may contain |

| | |spores of pathogens like ascaris, tapeworm |

|TCP |Oils |Paralysis |

|Rancid (spoilt due to microbial |Oils |Destroys vitamin A and E |

|action) oil | | |

|Artificially coloured foreign |As a substitute for cumin seed, |Injurious to health |

|seeds, papaya seeds |Poppy seed, black pepper | |

|Calcium carbide |Traces detected in fruits like banana, mangoes |Consumption of such fruits leads to |

|Used for artificially ripening |etc. |Diarrhoea |

|banana, mangoes ect. | |Ulcers, |

| | |Miscarriages |

|Mineral oil (white oil, petroleum |Edible oils and fats, |Cancer |

|fractions) & linseed oil | | |

|Castor oil |Groundnut oil |Can cause abortion in pregnant women when |

| | |amount adulterated goes beyond 0.7 mg/kg of|

| | |body weight. |

|Mobile oil |Used to impart a shiny appearance to vegetables |Harmful for the |

| |like brinjal, tomatoes etc. |Gastrointestinal also causes respiratory |

| | |problems |

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|Deleterious chemicals |Foods involved |Diseases/ |

|(Food colours, additives) | |Health effects |

|Lead chromate |Turmeric whole and powdered, mixed spices, pulses |Anemia, abortion, paralysis, brain damage |

|Metanil Yellow |Ice Creams, Candies, Sweets like Laddoos & |Male reproductive defects like decreased |

|(Not permitted by the PFA*) |Jalebies, dishes like chicken tandoori |sperm count etc |

| |etc | |

|Rhodamin –B |Sweets like Gulab Jamuns and Halwas |Cancer |

|(Not permitted by the PFA*) | | |

|Orange II |Orange coloured sweets like rasgullas |Cancer |

|(Not permitted by the PFA*) | | |

|Congo red & |Biscuits, Sweets and Cakes |Carcinogenic on prolonged usage |

|Butter Yellow | | |

|(Not permitted by the PFA*) | | |

|Sudan I |Red Chilli Powder |Carcinogenic |

|(Not permitted by the PFA*) | | |

|Malachite green |Used to colour parwal & peas |Carcinogenic |

|Sodium benzoate |Ketchups, Jams, Jellies etc |May cause allergies and asthma according to|

|(Preservative) | |the American Academy Allergy, Asthama & |

| | |Immunology |

|Copper Sulphate |Used to artificially colour vegetables like Lady |Anaemia |

|(blue coloured) |fingers & Parwal | |

|Saccharin |Used as an artificial sweetener. Since it is |Proven to the cause of Urinary Bladder |

| |300-500 times sweeter than sugar. |cancer in mammals |

|Brominated Vegetable oils |Added to citrus (orage,lemon)flavored drinks to |Proven carcinogen |

|(B.V.O) |maintain their | |

| |Characteristic cloudy appearance | |

|Ajinomoto/ Monosodium Glutamate |A flavor enhancer in prepared foods. |Produces “Chinese restaurant Syndrome” |

|(MSG) |It was responsible for the Kentucky Fried Chicken |Causing some people to have a |

| |(KFC) controversy in New Delhi during the Nineties|Burning. sensation in neck and fore arms, |

| | |tightness in the chest and headache |

|Tin (cans) |Food stored in cans |Colic pains even vomiting in some cases |

|Zinc (food containers) |Canned Foods |Colic pains even vomiting in some cases |

|Mercury |Mercury fungicide treated seed grains or mercury |Brain damage, paralysis, death |

| |contaminated fish | |

| |  | |

|Arsenic |Fruits such as apples sprayed over with lead |Dizziness, chills, cramps, paralysis, death|

| |arsenate | |

|Barium |Foods contaminated by rat poisons (Barium |Violent peristalisis, arterial |

| |carbonate) |hypertension, muscular twitching, |

| | |convulsions, cardiac disturbances |

|Cadmium |Fruit juices, soft drinks, etc. in contact with |‘Itai-itai (ouch-ouch) disease, Increased |

| |cadmium plated vessels or equipment. Cadmium |salivation, acute gastritis, liver and |

| |contaminated water and shell-fish |kidney damage, prostrate cancer |

|Lead |Drinking Water coming from lead coated pipelines, |Lead poisoning (foot-drop, insomnia, |

| |food stored in polythene bags, natural and |anemia, constipation, mental retardation, |

| |processed food |brain damage) |

|Aluminium as thin foils |Decoration of Sweet meats, instead of silver foils|Prolonged consumption may lead to |

| | |neurological problems like Alzheimer’s |

| | |disease . |

|Carbofuran |Brinjals |Developmental defects and Cancer |

| |To give a fresh purple appearance to them | |

|Phosphomidone |Cauliflowers |Developmental defects and Cancer |

|Methyl Parathin |To give a fresh white appearance to them | |

|Monocrotophos | | |

• PFA : Prevention of Food Adulteration ( Act), 1954

What a consumer can do to detect such adulterants

Simple tests

 

|Food article |Adulteration |Test |

|Wheat flour |Excessive sand & dirt |Shake a little quantity of sample with about 10 ml. Of Carbon tetra |

| | |chloride and allow to stand. Grit and sandy matter will collect at the|

| | |bottom. |

| |Excessive bran |Sprinkle on water surface. Bran will float on the surface. |

| |Chalk powder |Shake sample with dil. HCl Effervescence indicates chalk. |

| Mustard oil |Argemone oil |Add 5 ml, conc. HNO3 to 5 ml. sample. Shake carefully. Allow to |

| | |separate yellow, orange yellow, crimson colour in the lower acid layer|

| | |indicates adulteration. |

|Ghee (Clarified butter) |Mashed Potato |Boil 5 ml. Of the sample in a test tube. Cool and a drop of iodine |

| |Sweet Potato, etc. |solution. Blue colour indicates presence of Starch. colour disappears|

| | |on boiling & reappears on cooling. |

|  |Vanaspati |Take 5 ml. Of the sample in a test tube. Add 5 ml. Of Hydrochloric |

| | |acid and 0.4 ml of 2% furfural solution or sugar crystals. Insert the |

| | |glass stopper and shake for 2 minutes. Development of a pink or red |

| | |colour indicates presence of Vanaspati in Ghee. |

|  |Synthetic Colouring Matter |Pour 2 gms. Of filtered fat dissolved in ether. Divide into 2 |

| | |portions. Add 1 ml. Of HCl to one tube. Add 1 ml. Of 10% NaOH to the |

| | |other tube. Shake well and allow to stand. Presence of pink colour in |

| | |acidic solution or yellow colour in alkaline solution indicates added |

| | |colouring matter. |

|Pulses/Besan |Kesari dal(Lathyrus |Add 50 ml. Of dil.HCl to a small quantity of dal and keep on simmering|

| |sativus) |water for about 15 minutes. The pink colour, if developed indicates |

| | |the presence of Kesari dal. |

|Pulses |Metanil Yellow(dye) |Add conc.HCl to a small quantity of dal in a little amount of water. |

| | |Immediate development of pink colour indicates the presence of metanil|

| | |yellow and similar colour dyes. |

|  |Lead Chromate |Shake 5 gm. Of pulse with 5 ml. Of water and add a few drops of HCl. |

| | |Pink colour indicates Lead Chromate. |

|Milk |Water |Put a drop of milk on polished vertical surface. The drop of pure milk|

| |  |either stops or flows slowly leaving a white trail behind it. Whereas |

| |  |milk adulterated with water will flow immediately without leaving a |

| |Urea |mark. |

| |  |Take 5 ml of milk in a test tube and add 2 drops of bromothymol blue |

| | |soln. Development of blue colour after 10 minutes indicates presence |

| | |of urea. |

|Ice Cream |Washing Powder |Put some lemon juice, bubbles are observed on the presence of washing |

| | |powder |

|Common spices like Turmeric,|Colour |Extract the sample with Petroleum ether and add 13N H2SO4 to the |

|chilly, curry powder,etc. | |extract. Appearance of red colour (which persists even upon adding |

| | |little distilled water) indicates the presence of added colours. |

| | |However, if the colour disappears upon adding distilled water the |

| | |sample is not adulterated. |

|Black Pepper |Papaya seeds/light berries,|Pour the seeds in a beaker containing Carbon tetra-chloride. Black |

| |etc. |papaya seeds float on the top while the pure black pepper seeds settle|

| | |down. |

|Spices(Ground) |Powdered bran and saw dust |Sprinkle on water surface. Powdered bran and sawdust float on the |

| | |surface. |

|Coriander powder |Dung powder |Soak in water. Dung will float and can be easily detected by its foul |

| | |smell. |

|  |Common salt |To 5 ml. Of sample add a few drops of silver nitrate. White |

| | |precipitate indicates adulteration. |

|Red Chilli |Brick powder grit, sand, |Pour the sample in a beaker containing a mixture of chloroform and |

| |dirt, filth, etc. |carbon tetrachloride. Brick powder and grit will settle at the bottom.|

| |Rodamine Culture |Take 2gms sample in a test tube, add 5ml of acetone. Immediate |

| |  |appearance of red colour indicates presence of Rodamine.   |

| |  | |

|Turmeric Powder |Starch of maize, wheat, |A microscopic study reveals that only pure turmeric is yellow |

| |tapioca, rice |coloured, big in size and has an angular structure. While |

| | |foreign/added starches are colourless and small in size as compared to|

| | |pure turmeric starch. |

| |Lead Chromate |Ash the sample. Dissolve it in 1:7 Sulphuric acid (H2SO4) and filter. |

| | |Add 1 or 2 drops of 0.1% dipenylcarbazide. A pink colour indicates |

| | |presence of Lead Chromate. |

|  |Metanil Yellow |Add few drops of conc.Hydrochloric acid (HCl) to sample. Instant |

| | |appearance of violet colour, which disappears on dilution with water, |

| | |indicates pure turmeric. If colour persists Metanil yellow is present.|

|Cumin seeds |Grass seeds coloured with |Rub the cumin seeds on palms. If palms turn black adulteration in |

|(Black jeera) |charcoal dust |indicated. |

|Asafoetida |Soap stone, other earthy |Shake a little quantity of powdered sample with water. Soap stone or |

|(Heeng) |matter |other earthy matter will settle at the bottom. |

|  |Chalk |Shake sample with Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4). Asafoetida will settle |

| | |down. Decant the top layer and add dil.HCl to the residue. |

| | |Effervescence shows presence of chalk. |

|Saffron |Coloured dried tendrils of |Pure saffron will not break easily like artificial. Pure saffron when |

| |maize cob |allowed to dissolve in water will continue to give its colour so long |

| | |as it lasts. |

|Honey |Water |A cotton wick dipped in pure honey burns when ignited with a |

| | |matchstick. If adulterated presence of water will not allow the honey |

| | |to burn, if it does will produce a cracking sound. |

|Food grains |Hidden insect infestation |Take a filter paper impregnated with Ninhydrin (1% in alcohol.) Put |

| | |some grains on it and then fold the filter paper and crush the grains |

| | |with hammer. Spots of bluish purple colour indicate presence of hidden|

| | |insects infestation |

|Tea |Coloured leaves |Rub leaves on white paper, artificial colour comes out on paper. |

| |  |Tea leaves sprinkled on wet filter paper. Pink or red spots on paper |

| | Used tea |show colour |

| |  |Move a magnet through the sample. Iron will stick to the magnet. |

| |Iron fillings | |

|Coloured Green vegetables |Malachite green |Take a small part of the sample and place it over a moistened white |

|like pointed gourd (parwal),| |blotting paper, the impression of the colour on paper indicates the |

|Brinjal, chilli etc | |presence of malachite green |

 

Other steps to safe guard against food adulteration

Food Adulteration is rampant in rural as well as urban areas.

The best preventive step can be to buy branded and ISI-marked products. Even if these branded items cost a little extra, it is worth paying the extra amount to safe guard your health.

If you have purchased any branded item and doubt its quality, you can at least approach the company concerned. One must avoid informal transactions, which deprive the consumer a receipt for the purchases made. Always remember to preserve your grocery bills so that the company can take necessary steps regarding the complaint

If any person manufactures for sale, stores, sells, imports or distributes any article of food that is adulterated or misbranded, he is liable under the PFA Act to be punished with imprisonment and fined.  If you find that any food is adulterated, then do not keep silent. Complain to Prevention of Food Adulteration Department in your city / town / district and report to the newspapers and make more and more people aware to take joint action.

Punishment Provisions

Whoever adulterates any food or drinks intended for sale shall be punished with imprisonment, which may extend to six months, or with fine that may extend to one thousand rupees, or both.

Besides the CRPC the Food Adulteration Act, makes provisions for the prevention of adulteration of food. Food inspectors appointed by the Central and State Governments are empowered to take samples from any person selling, conveying or delivering such article to a purchaser or consignee, and from a consignee after receiving delivery, and send such sample to the public analyst.

A purchaser of any article of food, or a recognised consumer association, may also get an article of food analysed by the public analyst on payment of the prescribed fees, provided that the vendor is informed of this intended action at the time of purchase. Thereafter, the purchaser or the consumer associations, have to follow the same procedure as discussed above in the case of Food Inspectors. If the article of food is found to be adulterated, the fees paid by the purchaser or the association shall be refunded.

Import, manufacture, storage, sale or distribution of any food article, which is adulterated by allowing its quality or purity to fall below the prescribed standard, or is misbranded, or in contravention of any provision of the Act or Rules. Penalty is minimum imprisonment of six months that may extend upto 3 years and minimum fine of Rs 1000 under the Food Adulteration Act.

References:

i.

ii. Friday, November 19,2004,THE TIMES OF INDIA

iii.

iv.

v. Eating Clean, Overcoming Food Hazards, Selected readings, A consumers Handbook, Centre for the Study of Responsive law, Library of Congress

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