The document discusses various ways that common food items in India can be adulterated, along with the potential health effects. It provides examples of adulterants for milk (starch, urea, formalin), ghee (potatoes, oils, vanaspathi), mustard seeds and oil (argemone seeds, mineral oil), sugar (chalk powder, washing soda, plastic crystals), tea powder (used tea leaves, artificial dyes, tamarind seeds), and turmeric powder (yellow dyes, tapioca starch, lead chromate). Adulteration can cause issues like cancer, renal failure, diarrhea, respiratory problems, and neurological damage. The document emphasizes that food safety monitoring is needed to

1. BOARD PRACTICALS

2.  Food adulteration refers to the act of intentionally debasing
the quality of food by either adding or replacing the food
substances with undeclared alternative components, or by
the removal of some valuable components.
 This has been a major concern among consumers as it is
often undesirable from an economic, health, religious, or
legal standpoint.
 Meat adulteration in comminuted and highly processed
meat products is a widespread practice in some retail
markets where meat species with higher commercial value
have been replaced or substituted with lower value or
undesirable alternatives.

3.  In addition, fraudulent adulteration of food products
with undeclared components might cause health
problems such as allergies in sensitized individuals.

4.  A substance is added which depreciates or injuriously
affects it.
 Cheaper or inferior substances are substituted wholly
or in part.
 Any valuable or necessary constituent has been wholly
or in part abstracted.
 It is an imitation.
 It is colored or otherwise treated, to improve its
appearance or if it contains any added substance
injurious to health.
 For whatever reasons its quality is below the Standard.

5.  Intentional Adulterants:
It is done for financial gain. For example, Sand, marble
chips, stones, mud, other filth, talc, chalk powder, water,
mineral oil and harmful colour.
 Incidental adulterants:
It happens due to carelessness and lack of proper
hygienic conditions of processing, storage, transportation
and marketing. For example, Pesticide residues, droppings
of rodents, larvae in foods.
 Metallic contaminants:
It occurs due to arsenic from pesticides, lead from
water, effluent from chemical industries, tin from cans.

6.  Food adulteration has become a very common
practice in our country and we are consuming these
foods almost everyday, which have numerous
harmful effects to our health.
 The usage of adulterants has increased in societies
because of few legal controls on food quality and/or
poor/nonexistent monitoring by authorities.
 It frequently occurs where informal food production
and marketing services are predominant and
enforcement of food regulation is weak.
 Food adulteration is unethical and called as SOCIAL
EVIL and A SLOW POISO.

9.  Milk can be adulterated with starch, milk powder, urea,
formalin, Detergent.
 Health effect: Cancer or acute renal failure.

10.  Adultrant: Water
 Added for: Increase the milk volume
 Damage: Decreases the nutritive value and poses
health hazard to infants.
 Adultrant: Benzoic acid & Salicylic acid
 Added for: Increases shelf life for long distance
transport.
 Damage: Linked to asthma & increases level of
hyperactivity in children Detergents Increases foaming
in milk & increases whiteness and thickness Causes
gastro intestinal & renal problems.

11.  Adultrant: Formalin
 Added for: Increases the shelf life
 Damage: Liver & kidney damage.
 Adultrant: Starch
 Added for: Increases quantity and maintains SNF in
synthetic milk.
 Damage: Causes diarrhea, may be fatal for diabetic.
 Adultrant: Urea
 Added for: Provides whiteness and increases the
consistency of milk, improves solid not fat
percentage(SNF)
 Damage: Overburdens the kidney and may cause
renal failure.

15.  Ghee can be adultrated with potatoes, oil, vanaspathi,
etc.
 Health effect: Cancer or acute renal failure. The
argemone oil used to adulterate ghee and butter is
highly toxic.

16.  Adulterants: Ghee essence is used in cheaper oils
and passed off as pure ghee. This type of ghee will not
solidify like normal ghee. It may also not have that
grainy texture of pure ghee.
 Oleomargarine or lard ( Animal fat) - added to butter
 Mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes or other starch is
added to ghee

20.  Mustard seeds and oil can be adultrated by Argemone
seeds, mineral oil, etc.
 Health effect: Epidemic dropsy & Glucoma due to
argemone cancer due to mineral oil.

21.  Adulterant: Argemone seeds and agremone oil.
 Mineral oil also added to edible oil.
 Damage: Clinico-epidemiological manifestations of
argemone oil poisoning include vomiting, diarrhea,
nausea, swelling of limbs, erythema, pitting edema,
breathlessness, etc. In extreme cases, glaucoma and
even death due to cardiac arrest have been
encountered.

25.  Sugar can be adultrated by chalk powder, white sand,
Washing soda, Plastic crystals, etc.
 Health effect: Chalk powder is not toxic but when
inhaled for long, may cause respiratory problems.
Washing soda cause diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.

26.  Adulterants: Chalk powder
 Damage: The chalk itself is not very harmful in small
quantities, but once ingested, the calcium may bond
with oxalates inside the digestive system and create
Calcium Oxalate crystals which may get stuck in the
kidney as kidney stones.
 Adulterants: White sand(Dolomite)
 Damage: Dolomite contains varying levels of
crystalline silica, which can cause damage to lungs or

27. even cancer when it is breathed in.The material can
also cause irritation to the skin and eyes.
 The Department of Health also attested to dolomite's
health risks, especially the adverse reactions in
humans when inhaled.
 Adulterant: Washing soda
 Damage: Washing soda is not meant to be ingested
and can cause diarrhoea, nausea, and vomiting.
 Adulterant: Plastic crystals
 Damage: It can cause cancer.

31.  Tea powder can be adulterated with used tea leaves,
dye or artificial colour, iron fillings, tamarind seeds,
cashew nut peel, red ash, detergent powder and other
materials.
 Health effects: Cancer, tetanus

32.  Adulterant: Used tea leaves and dye or artificial
colour
 Damage: The use of pre-used tea leaves and
processed and coloured tea could put you at risk of
liver disorders and other health problems.
 Adulterant: Artificial dye or colour.
 Damage: Children who consume more artificial
coloured food items have more risk of having problems
like sleeplessness, irritability and restlessness.
Consumption of artificial food colours also leads to the
problem of depression, memory loss and
aggressiveness.

33.  Adulterant: Tamarind seeds
 Damage: Tamarind might lower blood sugar
levels. There is a concern that it might interfere
with blood sugar control. If you have diabetes and
use tamarind, monitor your blood sugar levels
closely.

37.  Turmeric powder can be adulterated with yellow aniline
dyes, Non-permitted colourants like metanil yellow,
Tapioca starch, Lead chromate powder.
 Health effect:
a) Yellow aniline dyes: Carcinogenic.
b) Non-permitted colourants like metanil yellow
Highly Carcinogenic.
c) Tapioca starch: Stomach disorder.
d) Lead chromate added to turmeric powder and
spices can cause anemia, paralysis, brain damage and
abortions