IDENTIFYING COMMON FOOD ADULTERANTS

Dr. Sitaram Dixit - Consumer Guidance Society of India

Food adulteration is a growing menace that unscrupulous traders and manufacture all
over the world indulge in to exploit gullible consumers to make quick and easy
money. In all free market societies where legal control is poor or nonexistent with
respect to monitoring of food quality by authorities, usage of adulterants is common
and rampant. Every nation on earth has suffered cases of adulteration at one time or
other. Government authorities with great efforts have succeeded in reducing the
recurrent occurrences; but have not been able to eliminate it. Only an aware and an
informed consumer will be able to eliminate it conclusively by continuous routine
monitoring. The dictionary defines food adulteration as an act of intentionally
debasing the quality of food offered for sale by either the admixture or substitution of
inferior substances or by the removal of some valuable ingredient.

WHAT IS ADULTERATED FOOD?

a. If the product 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 product offered contains any substance or if 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 in the
product, or any natural constituent has been wholly or partly abstracted from it,
to affect its quality.
d. If the product had been prepared, packed, or kept under unsanitary conditions,
has become contaminated, injurious to health or is unfit for human
consumption.
e. If the container of the product is composed of any poisonous or deleterious
substance which renders its contents injurious to health.
f. If the product contains any prohibited colouring matter, preservatives, or
contains any permitted colouring matter or preservative in excess of the
prescribed limits.
g. If the quality or purity of the product falls below the prescribed standard, or its
constituents are present in proportions other than those prescribed, whether or
not rendering it injurious to health.

To put it in perspective we can say that adulteration is “The act of intentionally

debasing the quality of food offered for sale either by the admixture or substitution by
inferior substances or by the removal of some valuable ingredient”.

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HOW TO TEST FOR FOOD ADULTERANT

The following lists the common items adulterated and simple methods to identify.
FOOD ADULTERANT SIMPLE METHOD FOR DETECTING THE
ITEM ADULTERANT
Mustard Argemone Seeds Argemone seeds have rough surface & on pressing is
white inside. Mustard is yellow inside
Ice Cream Washing Powder Put some lemon juice, bubbles are observed if
washing powder is present
Sugar Chalk Dissolve sugar in a glass of water, chalk will settle
Powder, down.
Salt
Silver Foil Aluminium Foil On ignition, Silver foil burns away completely
leaving glistening white spherical ball of the same
mass while Aluminium foil reduces to black Grey
colour ash.
Coffee Chicory Gently sprinkle the coffee powder on surface of
water in a glass. The coffee floats over the water but
chicory begins to sink down within few seconds.
Also the falling chicory powder particles leave
behind them a trail of colour, due to large amount of
caramel they contain
Honey Water A cotton wick dipped in pure honey burns when
ignited with a matchstick. Presence of water will not
allow the honey to burn, and if it does, it will
produce a cracking sound.
Red Chilli Brick Powder Brick powder settles fast chilli powder settles slowly
Powder when put in water.
Red Colour dye Sprinkle some Chilli powder on the surface of water
in a glass beaker. Artificial colorants will descend as
coloured streaks.
Sudan red III Take 1 g of suspected chilli powder in a test-tube,
colour add 2 ml of hexane to it, and shake well. Allow it to
settle. Decant the clear solution into another test
tube. Add 2 ml of aceto-nitrile reagent in water (7:3)
and shake well. The appearance of a red colour in the
lower aceto-nitrile layer indicates the presence of
Sudan red III.
Tea Tea Coloured Rub leaves on white paper, artificial colour comes
leaves out on paper.
Used tea Tea leaves sprinkled on wet filter paper. Pink or red
spots on paper show colour
Iron fillings Move a magnet through the sample. Iron will stick to
the magnet.

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 FOOD ADULTERANT SIMPLE METHOD FOR DETECTING THE
ITEM ADULTERANT
Turmeric Metanil Yellow Add a few drops of HCl to turmeric in water.
Powder Instantly a violet colour appears. Persistence of
violet colour when diluted with water indicates the
presence of Metanil yellow.
Other aniline Take some turmeric powder in a test-tube and add
dyes water to make a solution. Add 1 to 2 ml of rectified
spirit. An immediate separation of yellow colour in
the rectified spirit will indicate the presence of added
dyes.
Pulses Metanil Yellow Extract the colour with luke warm water from the
viz., or sample of pulses. Add drops of HCl. A pink colour
Dals ,like Lead Chromate indicates presence of Metanil yellow / Lead
Moong, Chromate.
Channa
Green Malachite green Take a small part of the sample and place it over a
Vegetables moistened white blotting paper. Colour impressions
like chilli, on paper indicates the presence of Malachite green
Peas, etc.,
Pure Ghee Vanaspathi Take one teaspoonful of melted ghee or butter with
or Butter equal quantity of Conc. Hydrochloric acid in a test
tube. Add to it a pinch of cane sugar. Shake well for
one minute and let it stand for five minutes. Crimson
red colour in lower layer shows the presence of
Vanaspathi.
Black Papaya Seeds Float the sample in alcohol. The mature black pepper
Pepper berries sink while papaya seeds and light black
pepper float.
Paneer, Starch Take a small portion of the product in a test tube add
Condensed water and boil. Cool to room temperature. Add 1-2
Milk, drops Iodine solution. Blue colour indicates the
Koya presence of starch.
Besan / Kesari Dal Add 50 ml of dilute HCl and cook the dal for about
Yellow (Lathyrus 15 minutes. If pink colour develops it indicates the
Dal Sativus) presence of Kesari Dal
Bajara Ergot infested Infested Bajara will swell black and float in water.
Spices Barn It will float on water surface
powder
Wheat Sand / Dirt Shake a small sample with 10ml CCl4. Allow to
flour stand. Sand will collect at the bottom.
Barn It will float on water surface
Chalk powder Shake the sample with dilute HCl. Effervescence
indicates presence of chalk powder.

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 FOOD ADULTERANT SIMPLE METHOD FOR DETECTING THE
ITEM ADULTERANT
Cumin Grass seeds Rub the cumin seeds on your palm. If palm turns
Seed / coloured with back, it indicates adulteration.
Jeera charcoal
Asafoetida Soap Stone or Shake a little portion of sample with water. Allow to
Hing earthy matter stand. Soap stone or earthy matter will settle down at
the bottom.
Powder a gram of asafoetida and take it in a test-
tube. Add one teaspoon of water. Mix thoroughly by
Other resin shaking. Milky white solution with no sediments
represents pure asafoetida.
Pure powdered asafoetida, taken in a spoon and burnt
on a gas flame, will burn with a bright flame like
camphor. Impure asafoetida will not burn smoothly.
Take 1 g of asafoetida, powder it thoroughly, and
Colophon take it in a test-tube. Add some rectified spirit and
residue obtained filter/ decant the solution. Take 5 ml of filtrate and
after the add few drops of ferric chloride (6%) solution. Olive
distillation of green colour shows the presence of adulteration with
turpentine oil. other resins.
Vegetable Castor Oil Take 1ml Oil in a dry test tube. Add 10 ml of
Oil acidified petroleum ether. Shake vigorously for 2
minutes. Add 1-2 drops of ammonium molybdate
reagent. Turbidity indicates adulteration with castor
oil.
Karanja Oil Take 1 ml of oil in a test-tube. Add few drops of
antimony trichloride solution in chloroform and mix.
A canary yellow or orange colour indicates the
presence of Karanja oil.
Mineral Oil Saponify a 5 gm sample with alcoholic potassium
hydroxide. Mineral Oil will not saponify.
Addition of water to the above will also give
turbidity.
Argemone Oil Take 4 to 5 ml oil sample in a test-tube. Add an
equal quantity of concentrated nitric acid. Shake
carefully avoiding any contact with the skin. A red or
reddish brown colour in the acid layer indicates the
presence of Argemone oil.

Take 4 to 5 ml of oil sample in a test-tube. Add some

dilute hydrochloric acid to it and mix. Add few drops
of ferric chloride solution. Reddish brown precipitate
indicates presence of Argemone oil.

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 FOOD ADULTERANT SIMPLE METHOD FOR DETECTING THE
ITEM ADULTERANT
Saffron Coloured dried Pure saffron will not break easily like artificial. Pure
tendrils of saffron when allowed to dissolve in water will
maize cob continue to give its colour so long as it lasts.
Cinnamon Cassia Bark Cinnamon bark is very thin and can be rolled around
Bark a pencil or pen. It also has a distinct smell. Cassia
bark is very thick and stiff and cannot be rolled.
Cassia bark comprises of several layers in between
the rough outer and inner most, smooth layers. On
examination of the bark closely, a clear distinction
can be made.
Cloves Exhausted Using the magnifying glass, observe the individually
or spread cloves closely. Exhausted cloves can be
De-oiled identified by its small size and shrunken appearance.
Cloves The characteristic pungent taste of genuine cloves is
less pronounced in exhausted cloves.

Among all foods, milk adulteration is the most common one, being very easy and
lucrative. Simple addition of water to milk adulterates it. When water is added to pure
milk, it undergoes a change in its physical and nutritional constituents. When inferior
quality impure water is used to adulterate milk, chances of infection and disease due
to microbial contamination is very high on its consumption.

Impure water reduces the keeping quality of milk and so artificial harmful
preservatives are added to improve the shelf life of the adulterated product. Pure milk
is spoiled on keeping at room temperature within a day and an adulterated one stays
fresh for a much longer time. Simple addition of water is also easily recognisable by
users as the product becomes thin and watery. To prevent easy identification
adulterators add various chemical agents to thicken the product so that adulterated
milk closely resembles the consistency of pure milk.

To know more about milk adulteration and means to identify, please refer the
following published papers in KEEMAT by Sitaram Dixit.

1. Food Adulteration – The menace that need to be curbed.

2. Test yourself – Detect adulteration in milk.
3. Detect adulteration in milk (using CGSI milk kit).

You may also visit www.sitaramdixit.4t.com or www.dixitsitaram.itgo.com and

download it for your use

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