Jun 24, 2019
Run theses simple tests to detect food adulteration
Ludhiana, June 23
Food adulteration can pose a serious risk to public health. Getting food tested in laboratories may not be feasible every time as it entails investment of time, effort and money. The good news is that in many cases sensory evaluation quick tests can help in determining whether or not the food product is adulterated.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has given some simple tests to detect adulteration in food.
Chilli powder is usually adulterated with brick powder, salt powder and talcum powder. In this case, the genuineness can be ascertained by taking a teaspoon of chilli powder in a glass of water and examining the residue. On rubbing the residue, if any grittiness is felt, it indicates the presence of brick powder or sand or both. If there is any white residue with a soapy and smooth feel, it suggests the presence of soap stone.
Sugar is another frequently adulterated foodstuff. Richa Batra, a city-based homemaker, says that she bought sugar that did not taste quite right. It seemed adulterated. The FSSAI suggests that to test sugar, rub a little of it on palm and smell. If adulterated with urea, it will smell of ammonia. Or you can dissolve a small amount of sugar in water. If adulterated with urea, sugar gives a smell of ammonia.
Most of the times, the public remains unsuspecting of adulteration in atta (wheat flour). Yet it is very often adulterated. The normal taste of chapati prepared out of atta is somewhat sweetish whereas those prepared out of adulterated atta will be insipid and tasteless.
Among the spices and condiments, turmeric powder (haldi) often suffers the onslaught of adulteration. To detect artificial colour in turmeric powder, add a little of this powder in a glass of water. Natural turmeric powder leaves light yellow colour while settling down. Adulterated turmeric powder leaves a strong yellow colour in water while settling down.
Sample this
- Most of the times the public remains unsuspecting of adulteration in atta (wheat flour). Yet it is very often adulterated. The normal taste of chapati prepared out of atta is somewhat sweetish whereas those prepared out of adulterated atta will be insipid and tasteless.
- The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India suggests that to test sugar, rub a little of it on palm and smell. If adulterated with urea, it will smell of ammonia.
Thiruvananthapuram: 24 hours food safety toll free number
The toll-free number has received around 200 to 250 calls between April and June this year.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As part of its effort to effectively address customer grievances, the Kerala Commissionerate of Food Safety for the first time is gearing up to launch a grievance redressal platform which would keep the complainant on the loop.
To make the initiative a reality, it has tied up with the Citizen Call Centre run by the IT Mission for managing the food safety toll-free number – 1800-425 -1125 - which would function 24 hours.
A top official of the Commissionerate told DC that the complainant now on would get an email intimation or SMS on the status of the complaint forwarded to the concerned food safety officers across the state.
The toll-free number has received around 200 to 250 calls between April and June this year.
“The call centre would inform the complaint to the concerned food safety official in the region. Suppose if there is a mass food poisoning, the moment the call centre receives the info it would be passed on to the food safety officer, regional deputy commissioner and assistant food safety commissioner. We have given strict direction to settle the complaint within three days,” said the official.
However, the inadequate number of vehicles and food safety officers are a major handicap.
“The complaint would be dealt with depending on the gravity of the issue as we don’t have vehicles at all districts. We have taken this with the government, and they have promised to help,” said the official.
CHECK BEFORE YOU PURCHASE WHAT LIES IN YOUR RICE?
The premium priced and packaged brown rice from the supermarket may in reality be whiter and more polished than ever, and the so-called ‘diabetic friendly’ variety, nothing more than parboiled white rice. Armed with a stereo-zoom microscope, food scientists from Madras Diabetic Research Foundation (MDRF) decided to put 15 types of supermarket ‘healthy’ rice grains to the test. What they found was that in many cases there wasn’t a grain of truth in the claims mentioned on the packets.
“With more diabetic patients approaching us with newer varieties of rice that claim to be zero cholesterol and sugar-free we decided to examine 15 of the popular ones,” says MDRF food and nutrition research scientist Sudha Vasudevan, one of the co-authors of the study recently published in the Journal of Diabetology.
The biggest shocker was a brown rice brand that proclaimed an 8.6 glycemic index (GI), a value Vasudevan says has never been reported as per the international GI table (the lowest GI of rice is around 40). GI is a relative ranking of carbohydrate in foods according to how they affect blood glucose levels. A GI value of less than 55 is considered low, while 70 and above is high.
“On examination the rice was found to be parboiled brown rice. There were fissures on the surface and a mild disruption of the bran and germ layers,” says MDRF food scientist Shobana Shanmugam, also a co-author. Fissures and a disrupted bran and germ layer, she says, make the rice mushy when cooked as more water is absorbed by the grain, intensifying its starchiness. This in turn increases the GI.
What one needs to understand, says Vasudevan, is that all brown rice may not be low GI. “The other misconception is that hand-pounded rice is healthy, but findings show it has a GI similar to polished white rice because of the abrasions on the grains,” she says. Vasudevan explains that bran is rich in fat and tough to cook to a soft consistency, so Indians tend to cook it longer. “Indians add a lot of water to brown rice and that breaks the bran layer.” MDRF recommends brown rice to be cooked with a 1:1.5 cup water ratio as opposed to the usual 1:3.
Minimally polished rice also have a high GI, says Vasudevan. “Parboiled rice is also polished and therefore not that healthy. Parboiling is done to increase vitamin B and for a longer shelf life, but it removes the germ and bran layer, resulting in higher GI.”
The other tall claims, says Shanmugam, were sugar free and zero cholesterol options. “No plantbased food has direct cholesterol, but in excess they can cause triglyceride and cholesterol levels to go up.” As for sugar-free rice, she says, the starch in rice is converted to glucose on digestion, so in effect there cannot be sugar-free rice.
“The key is to not get carried away by labels. And to remember that rice needs to be eaten in moderation,” says Vasudevan.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)