SOME PERSPECTIVES ON FOOD ADULTERATION

Adulteration of food is the addition of a non-food item to increase the quantity or enhance the appearance of the food item in raw form or prepared form, which may result in the loss of actual quality of the food item and/or cause harm to the consumer. The following important criteria define food adulteration:

• It bears or contains any poisonous or deleterious substance which renders it injurious to health.
• It is, or it bears or contains, an unsafe food additive.
• It is, or it bears or contains, an unsafe colour additive.
• It has been prepared, packed or held under unsanitary conditions whereby it may have become contaminated or rendered injurious to health.
• It contains a dietary ingredient that presents a significant or unreasonable risk of illness or injury.

The last two criteria are especially relevant to the food processing and packing industries. Deliberate or inadvertent adulteration of food was so rampant and widespread that Parliament enacted The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act in 1954 in the interest of public health. Deliberate food adulteration was done at the wholesale level, and done for profit-at-any-cost, making it a social evil. It affected public health, causing loss of productive work-days and expenditure on medical treatment of acute and chronic illnesses. Apart from causing human suffering, food adulteration causes national loss while the adulterator makes a monetary profit. Thus, a food adulterator is not only a criminal but also a national enemy.

With the burgeoning of the food and food processing industries (including bulk storage and refrigeration), it was necessary to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption, by controlling and regulating the food industry. Accordingly, The Food Safety and Standards Act was enacted in 2006, repealing The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954. The Act creates the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, which works in close cooperation with enforcement agencies working in the field of Food.

Food adulteration detection

Adulterants are of different kinds: Stones of the right size, shape and colour are used to adulterate rice, pulses, mustard, etc; iron filings in sooji; papaya seeds in pepper; mashed potatoes and other starches in ghee; castor oil, argemone oil and mineral oils in edible oils; powdered date and tamarind seeds in coffee powder; artificial (toxic or carcinogenic) colouring chemicals to make food products more attractive, etc. There are simple tests which can be done at home to detect the presence of some adulterants listed above but some adulterants cannot be detected and quantified without expensive, time-consuming laboratory testing.

Practices of the marketplace

Some practices of the marketplace are connected with long-distance transportation and storage of foods, as food-miles increase with growing industrialisation of the economy. For example, fruits are sold in urban markets round the year, because most urban people have lost the wisdom of eating local and seasonal fruits and their purchasing-power has grown along with advertisement and other factors.

Growers do not allow fruit to ripen on the trees, but pluck them early, because ripe fruit cannot be transported to distant markets. Such fruit need to be ripened artificially at the destination market or retail outlets, and common practice is to use acetylene gas generated in a closed space by moisture in the air and fruit, acting on calcium carbide. Since industrial-grade calcium carbide contains traces of arsenic and phosphorus, and carbide has carcinogenic properties, such fruit are, by definition, adulterated. This ripening process is widespread, but public is unaware of the long-term hazards and health enforcement authorities are inactive due to a combination of ignorance, callousness and corruption.

Chemicals in food production and processing

Today, food production involves chemical fertilisers and pesticides, which inevitably appear in the food. These synthetic inputs are harmful to human health, but as frequently quipped, “the poison is in the dose.” Also, some poisons, within certain limits, are excreted by normal biological processes while others accumulate in the body. This reality has resulted in scientists prescribing “safe limits” for substances which are ingested, inhaled or absorbed by the human body. These “safe limits” are compiled into standards, which are legislated in the public interest, but enforcement is problematic. However, the safety of a combination of chemical adulterants, each within its safe limits, is neglected by both science and law.

Reality is that hundreds of chemicals are daily entering our bodies through the food-chain, and from polluted water or air. The incidence of several life-style diseases have been correlated with these chemicals. However, only a small proportion of these chemicals can be classified as adulterants, because of the way in which “adulteration” has been defined.

Chemical preservatives, flavourings, taste-enhancers, etc., are used in food processing. But indiscriminate or careless use of these chemicals, often toxic over the long-term, has become a major public health concern. Only approved laboratory testing to determine the identity of the harmful chemical and its concentration can legally prove adulteration. Also, use of chemicals in food processing can affect the natural goodness of foods by destroying ingredients like vitamins and minerals.

Nutrition - some questions

Food is consumed for its nutrition. Let us take two examples. Consider rice, the staple food for much of India’s population. The components of rice are carbohydrates, fibre, protein, vitamins and minerals; excepting carbohydrates, most of these are found in the outermost layers of each grain. The rice which we eat is first husked, since husk is not digestible. The industrial process of husking or hulling, includes polishing as a subsequent process, using extra energy to remove the outermost layers of each grain, and lose the nutritious components! But most people prefer white rice, not knowing that they are eating mostly carbohydrate (starch), to the detriment of their health. However, since polishing does not involve addition of any substance, it cannot be considered as adulteration.

Consider white sugar, manufactured from sugarcane. Its sucrose content has no nutritional value. But sugarcane jaggery contains 50% sucrose, 20% invert sugars (glucose and fructose), proteins and fibre. Sugar consumption is demonstrably linked with dental problems and obesity, whereas jaggery provides nutrition. But many people shun jaggery because it is not white, without knowing that consuming jaggery instead of sugar is more healthy. Since manufacture of sugar involves removal of nutritious content, it cannot be considered as adulteration. 

Does the Food Safety and Standards Act need amendment in the public interest to prevent destruction of nutrition in food?