Know what you are eating: Food or Adulterants?

Food adulteration is the process in which the food quality standard is degraded the addition of low-quality components or by the extraction of valuable ingredient or nutrients. The intentional addition or alteration of the ingredients and the biological and chemical contamination during the process of production, storage, processing, transport and distribution of the food products are responsible for the lowering or degradation of the quality of food products and are considered as adulterationAdulterants are those substances which are added during the processing of the food products and are unsafe for human consumption.

Under the food laws and acts by the legislative bodies. any food product with lowered or degraded quality standards are defined as Adulterated Food but under the new law (FSS Act, 2006), the word adulterated food has been coined as Substandard, Unsafe or Food consisting of extraneous substances.

A food product is considered as adulterated if:

An ingredient which is injurious for human consumption is added to the product.

A nutritionally inferior ingredient substitutes the original ingredient wholly or partially.

A nutritious ingredient has been removed from the food product, wholly or partially.

Various types of adulterants found in the food products are as follows:
  1. Intentional adulterantssuch as coloring agents, starch, injectable dyes
  2. Accidental adulterantssuch as larvae in foods, droppings of rodents, pesticide, fertilizers, herbicides or chemical residues.
  3. Metallic contaminants such as lead, arsenic, effluent from chemical industries etc.
  4. Blending of water with milk to increase its quantity
  5. Mixing of Chicory roots with coffee
  6. Blending of steviol glycosides with wine to make it sweet
  7. Brine solutions are injected in meat products to increase its weight
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International Conference on Food Safety and Hygiene
September 06-08, 2018
Edinburgh, Scotland
For more details, visit: goo.gl/VT7AXV

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