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FOOD ADULTERATION
Dr.M.Dhrakshayani
Definition
Food adulteration is the process by which the quality of the
food or its products is reduced through the addition of a
foreign or inferior substance or the removal of a vital element.
Food adulteration is of 3 types
Intentional adulteration
Incidental adulteration
Natural adulteration
Intentional adulteration
Intentional adulteration means knowingly adding
some undesirable substances to the food or
removing/replacing some of the items and making it
of poor quality. This is done for making extra profits
by reducing the cost of production or by increasing
the quantity. Intentional adulterants include sand,
marble chips, stones, mud, chalk powder, water,
foreign seeds and leaves etc.
Many of these can easily detected
Incidental adulteration
Sometimes food gets incidentally or
unintentionally contaminated in fields (e.g. crops)
during growth and harvesting, storage, processing,
transportation and handling by the producers as well
as by the consumer. Pesticide and insect residues,
metals, droppings of rodents, larvae of insects, micro-
organism may enter the food at any stage.
Natural adulteration
Natural adulteration occurs due to the presence of
certain chemicals or harmful substance naturally
occurring in foods e.g. lead from water pipes joints
mixes into the water. Pesticides seep into the soil
with water which are taken up by the plants grown on
such soil. Some species of fish, some varieties of
pulses, mushrooms etc. are toxic for human
consumption.
Simple tests to detect food adulterants
Vegetable oil
adulteration- argemone oil
Test- add 5 ml, cone. HNO3 to 5 ml sample. Shake carefully.
Allow the layer to separate. Crimson colour in the lower acid
layer indicates adulteration
Wheat flour Adulteration- (i) excessive sand and dirt
Test- 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
(ii) Excessive bran
Test- sprinkle on water surface. Bran will float on the surface.
(iii) Chalk powder
Test- shake sample with dil. Hcl effervescence indicates chalk.