Adulterated food substituting nutrition with profit

LAHORE: There has been no letup in adulteration of food items, even though the rates of most foods have doubled in the last three years. Provincial governments that failed to check the rising prices cannot be expected to check adulteration.

Food is the basic necessity of life. We toil day and night for what? Just for two morsels of wholesome nutritious food. And if at the end of the day we are not sure of what we eat, then what are we toiling for?

We may be eating dangerous dye, sawdust, soapstone, industrial starch, Aluminium foil and believe it, even horse-dung! Regrettably we are inviting disease rather than good health.

Cases of worms found in even branded chocolates are often heard and though the manufacturers usually claim that it's poor storage conditions at the retailer's end that are to blame, the fact is that the end user does suffer.

That there is poison in the food we frequently eat is no new story. In fact, much is made of the legendary ‘Pakistani immunity' which can supposedly digest anything. The question that arises is why should we? And what are the law enforcing authorities doing? Looking the other way, ignoring, sitting on files and being bought and bribed!

With food prices soaring, unadulterated food items have become alarmingly rarer in the market these days. The sellers, wholesalers, and retailers mix everything -- from brick dust, soap ingredients to textile dyes -- with commonly eaten foods to cheat people.

Different studies reveal that these adulterants, if consumed, may cause cancer of different organs, acidity, kidney diseases, leukaemia and bone-marrow cancer. Most common and usually ignored contaminants are the dyes that are imported to change colours of textiles and leather. But dishonest producers use those in confectionary products, beverages, sweetmeats and other snacks.

Pure butter oil and ghee are also very rare in the market. Dishonest traders use a host of ingredients -- animal fat, palm oil, potato smash, and vegetable oil -- to make fake butter oil.

They even mix stearin oil, an ingredient in soap, with ghee to increase the proportion. The red chili powder used in the market is adulterated. In most cases, the spices are mixed with brick dust. Fine sawdust is also often mixed with cumin and other ground spices.

The elimination of dangerous adulterants seems impossible in the current scenario. The best the media could do is to create awareness among the consumers about items that are mixed in the food they buy. In many cases the adulteration could be easily checked by the consumers. Adulteration in milk for instance is very common. Addition of water can be easily checked by a simple test. Put a drop of milk on a polished vertical surface.

The drop of pure milk either stops or flows slowly leaving a white trail behind it. Whereas milk adulterated with water will flow immediately without leaving a mark. In order to check urea contamination, take 5ml of milk in a test tube and add 2 drops of bromothymol blue solution. Development of blue colour after 10 minutes indicates the presence of urea.

Chalk or powder in sugar can be checked by dissolving some quantity in a glass of water, chalk or powder will settle down. To check whether the foil used for sweets is of aluminium or silver, burn the foil. Genuine silver will burn completely leaving a shining white ball of the same mass, while aluminium foil is reduced to ashes of black-grey colour.

To check adulteration of water in honey, dip a cotton stick in honey and ignite it. If the honey is pure it will burn, but if it is adulterated with water it will not ignite or will burn with a crackling sound.

To check adulteration of leaves in tea, rub the tea on white paper, the artificial colour will come out on the paper. To check suspicions of used tea, sprinkle the tea on wet filter paper. Pink or red spots on paper indicate colouring of used tea. Checking iron filling in tea is simple, as you just have to move a magnet over tea leaves to confirm it.

These are few of the tests that could be performed by most households. But adulteration in most of the edibles can only be checked in food laboratories, which are rare in Pakistan.

The samples sent to state laboratories are manipulated through speed money. Even the spurious bottled water gets a clean chit from some of them.