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Thursday March 28, 2024

Edibles adulteration amounts to Rs4trln: economists

LAHORE: Adulteration in edibles is an implicit tax on the consumers that amounts to around Rs4 trillion per year, cheating consumers of their money and health, experts said on Wednesday. This robbery goes unnoticed because the victims are mostly poor and unaware, they said, adding that the obvious reason for

By Mansoor Ahmad
July 02, 2015
LAHORE: Adulteration in edibles is an implicit tax on the consumers that amounts to around Rs4 trillion per year, cheating consumers of their money and health, experts said on Wednesday.
This robbery goes unnoticed because the victims are mostly poor and unaware, they said, adding that the obvious reason for adulteration is to increase profit. A manufacturer may use cheap filler that is easily disguised in the edible product to increase the volume and profit, they added.
Economist Naveed Anwar Khan said it is a known fact that most of the milk consumed is adulterated. Only three percent of the 40 million ton milk produced in the country is processed and rest is disposed in loose packing. The total cost of 40 billion ton milk at an average rate of Rs70 per kilo comes to Rs28000 billion. He said even if we assume that only 25 percent of the milk is adulterated and the adulteration is restricted to 50 percent, the consumers are deprived of around Rs3500 billion per year.
The disgrace is that adulteration in milk is accepted by the society and the adulterators’ number in millions, he said.
For example, the lungs of slaughter goats and cows are filled with water immediately after slaughtering. The water mixes in the tissues of the animal that increases the meat weight and the buyers buy 25 percent water in the meat at Rs400-670 per kg. Similarly, red brick dust mixed in chilli powder is not recognizable but whatever amount is mixed enriches the adulterator by more than a thousand rupee per kg.
Although a comprehensive Punjab Pure Food Act exists that prohibits adulteration in edible items but the menace is still rampant throughout the country including Punjab. Punjab Food Authority is very active during Ramazan, sealing many famous out lets, but it lacks the institutional capacity to nab the adulterators spread widely in the society.
Nutritional expert Dr Jameel Tajwar said the cost of adulteration is much higher than calculated by the economists. Most of the adulterants are injurious to health and those consuming the adulterated food for longer periods develop different ailments some of which are lethal and some eroding the resistance of consumers against common diseases.
Some of the common adulterated foods are milk and milk products, atta, edible oils, cereals, condiments (whole and ground), pulses, coffee, tea, confectionary, baking powder, non-alcoholic beverages, vinegar, besan and curry powder.
Alum and chalk are sometimes added to bread to whiten it, while for stale flour, ammonium carbonate is added to disguise its sour taste. Mashed potatoes, sawdust and plaster of Paris are also added to increase the weight of the bread.
He said pickles and canned vegetables are sometimes coloured green with copper salts, while turmeric is used in mustard and some cereal preparations. Apples are the basis for many jellies, which are coloured so as to simulate the consumer desire, he added. In confectionery, dangerous colours, such as chrome yellow, Prussian blue, copper and arsenic compounds are employed.
A medical practitioner Dr Abid Iqbal Khokhar said many consumers get ill after consuming expired edible items. This is great injustice to those that pay the rate for a healthy consumable product but are cheated by the manufacturers, who sell them expired items, he added.
He said food adulteration is the act of intentionally debasing the quality of food offered for sale either by the substitution of inferior substances or by the removal of some valuable ingredient. A food item is considered adulterated if it contains any added “poisonous or deleterious substance”, filth or unapproved food or colour additive. It is also considered adulterated if any valuable constituent has been omitted or removed or substituted with another low cost substance, he added.