INVESTIGATORY PROJECT:

ADULTERATION IN FOOD STUFF (2012-13)

SUBMITED BY:APEKSHA
TEJWANI
GUIDED BY:MRS. SHEENA
CLASS:12 A
SCHOOL:QUEENS’ COLLEGE
THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT THE PROJECT REPORT
ENTITILED “ADULTERATION OF FOOD STUFF”
SUBMITTED BY APEKSHA TEJWANI OF CLASS 12 A
OF QUEENS’ COLLEGE SCHOOL DURING THE
ACADEMIC YEAR 2012-13 IS A BONAFIDE PIECE OF
WORK.THE DATA SOURCES HAVE BEEN DULLY
ACKNOWLEDGED.

Teacher’s signature :
Principal’s signature:
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I WOULD LIKE TO EXPRESS MY SINCERE GRATITUDE
TO MY CHEMISTRY MENTOR MRS. SHEENA JAIN ,FOR
HER VITAL SUPPORT,GUIDANCE AND
ENCOURAGEMENTWITHOUT WHICH THIS PROJECT
WOULD HAVE NOT COME FORTH.I WOULD ALSO LIKE
TO EXPRESS MY GRATITUDE TO THE SCHOOL
PRINCIPAL MRS. GEETHA SOMASHEKHARAN AND THE
DIRECTOR MR. RAMESH MULCHANDANI FOR
PROVIDING ME AN OPPORTUNITY TO WORK ON THIS
PROJECT.
I (Apeksha tejwani) hereby declare that the
project entitled “ADULTERATION IN
FOOD STUFF” is a record of original work
done by me under the guidance from Mrs.
Sheena Jain, Queens’ College, Indore.
S. NO.. CONTENTS

1. OBJECTIVE
2. INTRODUCTION
3. TYPES OF ADULTERATION

4. HISTORY
5. THEORY
6. EXPERIMENT 1
7. EXPERIMENT 2

8. EXPERIMENT 3
9. RESULT
10. CONCLUSION
11. BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Objective of this
project is to study
some of the common
food adulterants
present in different
food stuffs.
 In our daily life there are many unhygienic
and contaminated things for our health.
Most of our things our contaminated. Even
the food, which we eat, is adulterated. The
deliberate contamination of food material
with low quality, cheap and non-edible or
toxic substances is called food adulteration.
The substance, which lowers or degrades the
quality of food material, is called an
adulterant.
Adulteration brings a lot of easy money for the
traders, but it may spoil many lives. Food
adulteration can lead to slow poisoning and
various kinds of diseases, which can even result
in death. Adulteration makes the food items used
in our daily life unsafe and unhygienic for use.
The traders use it for their economic benefit
without thinking about its effect on the common
population of our country, which consumes it.
In India, the most common type of food
adulterations is of following types:
1.Milk :- It is adulterated by the addition of
water, starch, skim milk powder and removal
of cream.
2. Ghee :- It is adulterated with vanaspati and
animal fats such as pig's fat. In order to
improve the flavor of adulterated ghee
tributyrin is added.
3. Cereals :- Rice and wheat are mixed with
stones sand grit and mud to increase the bulk.
4. Flour :- Wheat flour is mixed with soapstone and
Bengal gram flour is adulterated with Kesari dal
or lathyrus flour.
5. Pulses :- They are adulterated with Kesari Dal
stones are added to pulses such as mott urad, and
masoor. Toxic chemical such as metanil yellow are
added to old stocks of pulses to improve their colour
appearance.
6. Edible Oil :- They are mixed with cheaper oil,
toxic oil (e.g. argemone oil) and mineral oil.
7. Honey :- It is adulterated with sugar and
jaggery.
 Food Items with type of Adulteration or
Contamination
Food Items Adulteration/ Contamination
1. Non-Alcoholic : Non-permitted colours, Saccharin,
Beverages ducin, lead, arsenic and copper,
and Dirt and filth.
2. Baking powder: Citric acid.
3. Starchy foods: Foreign starches in arrowroot,
sand, dirt, etc.
4. Spices: Sand, grit, coal tar dyes, saw
dust, lead or lead chromate in
haldi, In shah zeera excessive
stalky and woody matter.
5. Coffee and
Tea: Coat tar dyes, excessive stuff, husk, tamarik
husk, sand and grit, used tea dust.

6. Milk : Water, Starch ad abstraction of fat.

7. Vansapati: Animal fat, excessive hydrogenation Rancid
stuff. Sesame oil deficiency, foreign flavour.

8. Mustard seed : Argemone seeds which can cause epidemic

dropsy.
9. Oils:
Mineral oil potential carcinogenic, argimone oil.

10 Dals: Kesari dal which can cause lathyrism coal tar

. dyes.
11.Groundnut: Aflatoxin can cause cirrhosis of liver
Historically, the usage of adulterants has been
common in societies with few legal controls on
food quality and/or poor/nonexistent monitoring
by authorities; sometimes this usage has even
extended to exceedingly dangerous chemicals and
poisons. In the United kingdom during the
Victorian era. adulterants were quite common; for
example, cheeses were sometimes colored with lead.
Similar adulteration issues were seen in
industry in the United states, until the passage
of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.
Adulterant usage was first
investigated in 1820 by the German
chemist Frederick Accum, who
identified many toxic metal colorings
in food and drink. The physician
Arthur Hill Hassall later conducted
extensive studies in the early 1850s,
which led to the 1860 Food
Adulteration Act and subsequent
further legislation
The increasing number of food producers and the
outstanding amount of import foodstuffs enables
the producers to mislead and cheat consumers. To
differentiate those who take advantage of legal rules
from the ones who commit food adulteration is very
difficult. The consciousness of consumers would be
crucial. Ignorance and unfair market behavior may
endanger consumer health and misleading can lead
to poisoning. So we need simple screening tests for
their detection. In the past few decades, adulteration
of food has become one of the serious problems.
Consumption of adulterated food causes serious
diseases like cancer, diarrhoea, asthma, ulcers, etc.
Majority of fats, oils and butter are paraffin
wax, castor oil and hydrocarbons. Red chilli
powder is mixed with brick powder and pepper is
mixed with dried papaya seeds. These
adulterants can be easily identified by simple
chemical tests. Several agencies have been set up
by the Government of India to remove
adulterants from food stuffs. AGMARK -
acronym for agricultural marketing....this
organization certifies food products for their
quality. Its objective is to promote the Grading
and Standardization of agricultural and allied
commodities.
AIM:To detect the presence of adulterants in fat, oil
and butter.
REQUIREMENTS :Test-tube, acetic anhydride,
conc. H2SO4, acetic acid, conc. HNO3.
PROCEDURE :Common adulterants present in
ghee and oil are paraffin wax, hydrocarbons, dyes
and argemone oil. These are detected as follows :
(i)Adulteration of paraffin wax and hydrocarbon in
vegetable ghee Heat small amount of vegetable ghee
with acetic anhydride. Droplets of oil floating on
the surface of unused acetic anhydride indicates
the presence of wax or hydrocarbons.
 (ii) Adulteration of dyes in fat Heat
1mL of fat with a mixture of 1mL of
conc. sulphuric acid and 4mL of
acetic acid. Appearance of pink or red
colour indicates presence of dye in fat.
(iii) Adulteration of argemone oil in
edible oils To small amount of oil in a
test-tube, add few drops of conc.
HNO3 and shake. Appearance of red
colour in the acid layer indicates
presence of argemone oil.
AIM:To detect the presence of adulterants in fat, oil
and butter.
REQUIREMENTS :Test-tube, dilute hydrochloric
acid, iodine solution.
PROCEDURE :Common adulterants present in ghee
and oil are paraffin wax, hydrocarbons, dyes and
argemone oil. These are detected as follows :
(i)Adulteration of vegetable ghee in desi ghee: take
small amount of desi ghee in test tube and add to
it 1 ml of HCL and 2-3 drops of 2% alcoholic
furfural. Shake the contents vigorously.
 Appearance of red colour in the acid
layer shows that vegetable ghee has
been mixed as an adulterant to desi
ghee.
(ii) Adulteration of starch in milk: to
the aqueous suspension of the sample
add 1-2 drops of iodine solution.
Appearance of blue colouration
indicates the presence of starch in
milk.
AIM:To detect the presence of adulterants in sugar
REQUIREMENTS :Test-tubes, dil. HCl.
PROCEDURE: Sugar is usually contaminated with
washing soda and other insoluble substances which
are detected as follows :
(i) Adulteration of various insoluble substances in
sugar Take small amount of sugar in a test-tube
and shake it with little water. Pure sugar dissolves
in water but insoluble impurities do not dissolve.
(ii) Adulteration of chalk powder, washing soda in
sugar To small amount of sugar in a test-tube,
add few drops of dil. HCl. Brisk effervescence of
CO2 shows the presence of chalk powder or washing
soda in the given sample of sugar.
AIM:To detect the presence of adulterants in samples
of chilli powder, turmeric powder and pepper
REQUIREMENTS :Test-tubes, conc. HCl, dil.
HNO3, KI solution
PROCEDURE: Common adulterants present in
chilli powder, turmeric powder and pepper are red
coloured lead salts, yellow lead salts and dried
papaya seeds respectively. They are detected as
follows :
(i) Adulteration of red lead salts in chilli powder To
a sample of chilli powder, add dil. HNO3. Filter
the solution and add 2 drops of potassium iodide
solution to the filtrate. Yellow ppt. indicates the
presence of lead salts in chilli powder.
(ii)Adulteration of yellow lead salts to turmeric powder To
a sample of turmeric powder add conc. HCl. Appearance
of magenta colour shows the presence of yellow oxides
of lead in turmeric powder.
(iii) Adulteration of brick powder in red chilli powder Add
small amount of given red chilli powder in beaker
containing water. Brick powder settles at the bottom
while pure chilli powder floats over water.
(iv) Adulteration of dried papaya seeds in pepper Add
small amount of sample of pepper to a beaker
containing water and stir with a glass rod. Dried
papaya seeds being lighter float over water while pure
pepper settles at the bottom.
 EXPERIMENT
NO.3
AIM:To detect the presence of adulterants in samples
of chilli powder, turmeric powder and pepper
REQUIREMENTS :Test-tubes, conc. HCl, dil.
PROCEDURE: Common adulterants present in chilli
powder, turmeric powder and pepper are red coloured
lead salts, yellow lead salts and dried papaya seeds
respectively. They are detected as follows :
(i) Adulteration of red lead salts in chilli powder To a
sample of chilli powder, add dil. HCL. Appearance
of pink colour indicates the presence of lead salts
in chilli powder.
(ii)Adulteration of yellow lead salts to turmeric powder :To
a sample of turmeric powder add conc. HCl. And k2cr204
to this solutin.
Appearance of magenta colour shows the presence of
yellow oxides of lead in turmeric powder.
(iii) Adulteration of brick powder in red chilli powder :Add
small amount of given red chilli powder in beaker
containing water. Brick powder settles at the bottom
while pure chilli powder floats over water.
(iv) Adulteration of dried papaya seeds in pepper :Add
small amount of sample of pepper to a beaker containing
water and stir with a glass rod. Dried papaya seeds
being lighter float over water while pure pepper settles at
the bottom.
Selection of wholesome and non-adulterated
food is essential for daily life to make sure that
such foods do not cause any health hazard. It is
not possible to ensure wholesome food only on
visual examination when the toxic
contaminants are present in ppm level.
However, visual examination of the food before
purchase makes sure to ensure absence of
insects, visual fungus, foreign matters, etc.
Therefore, due care taken by the consumer at
the time of purchase of food after thoroughly
examining can be of great help.
Secondly, label declaration on packed food is
very important for knowing the ingredients
and nutritional value. It also helps in
checking the freshness of the food and the
period of best before use. The consumer should
avoid taking food from an unhygienic place
and food being prepared under unhygienic
conditions. Such types of food may cause
various diseases. Consumption of cut fruits
being sold in unhygienic conditions should be
avoided. It is always better to buy certified
food from reputed shop.
(1)ENCARTA ENCYCLOPEDIA
2009
(2)www.wikipedia.com
(3)www.answers.com
(4) www.google.com
 EXPERIMENT OBSERVATION INFERENCE

SAMPLE OF Sample + Appearance of pink or indicates

GHEE hydrochloric acid red colour presence of
+sugar vegetable ghee
as an adulterate
to desi ghee.

SAMPLE OF Sample +iodine Appearance of blue indicates

MILK solution colour presence of
starch in milk.
 EXPERIMENT OBSERVATION INFERENCE

SAMPLE OF Sample + dilute Appearance of shows the

TUMERIC hydrochloric acid yellow ppt. presence of yellow
POWDER + k2cr2o4 oxides of lead in
turmeric powder.

SAMPLE OF Sample + water Dried papaya shows the

PEPPER seeds being lighter presence of dried
float over water papaya seeds in
while pure pepper pepper.
settles at the
bottom.

SAMPLE OF Sample + dilute Appearance of shows the

CHILLI hydrochloric acid pink colour presence of
POWDER metanil yellow as
adulterant.
 EXPERIMENT OBSERVATION INFERENCE

SAMPLE OF Sample + dilute Brisk effervescence of shows the

SUGAR hydrochloric acid CO2 presence of
chalk powder
in the given
sample of
sugar

Sample + water White ppt. shows the

presence of
insoluble
impurities in
the given
sample of
sugar