CHEMISTRY

INVESTIGATORY
PROJECT

DONE BY

Akshay Jeevan (2)

Umesh Udayakumar (40)
1
STUDY OF FOOD
ADULTERANTS IN
FOOD STUFF

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1) OBJECTIVE
2) INTRODUCTION
3) THEORY
4) EXPERIMENT
a) AIM
b) APPARATUS REQUIRED
c) PROCEDURE
d) OBSERVATIONS
e) RESULT
f) CONCLUSION
5) BIBLIOGRAPHY

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 OBJECTIVE

The objective of this project is to study

some common food adulterants present
in different food stuffs.

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 INTRODUCTION
Food is one of the basic necessities for
sustenance of life. Pure, fresh and healthy
diet is most essential for the health of the
people. It is no wonder to say that
community health is national wealth.
Adulteration of food-stuffs was so rampant,
widespread and persistent that nothing
short of a somewhat drastic remedy in the
form of a comprehensive legislation
became the need of the hour. To check this
kind of anti- social evil a concerted and
determined onslaught was launched by the
Government by introduction of the
Prevention of Food Adulteration Bill in the
Parliament to herald an era of much
needed hope and relief for the consumers
at large. Food adulteration is an act of
adding or mixing of poor quality, inferior,
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harmful, substandard, useless or
unnecessary substances to foods. This act
of spoiling the nature and quality of food
items is considered food adulteration.
Historically, the use of adulterants has been
common; sometimes dangerous
substances have been used. In the United
Kingdom up to the Victorian era,
adulterants were common; for example,
cheeses were sometimes colored with lead.
Similar adulteration issues were seen in
industry in the United States, during the
19th century. There is dispute over whether
these practices declined primarily due to
government regulation or to increased
public awareness and concern over the
practices.
In the early 21st century, cases of
dangerous adulteration occurred in the
People's Republic of China.
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In some African countries, it is not
uncommon for thieves to break electric
transformers to steal transformer oil, which
is then sold to the operators of roadside
food stalls to be used for deep frying. When
used for frying, it is reported that
transformer oil lasts much longer than
regular cooking oil. The downside of this
misuse of the transformer oil is the threat to
the health of the consumers, due to the
presence of PCBs.
In the past few decades, adulteration of
food has become one of the serious
problems. Consumption of adultered food
causes serious diseases like cancer,
asthma, ulcers etc.
Majority of fats, oils and butter are paraffin
wax, castor oil and hydrocarbons .Red chili
powder is mixed with brick powder and
pepper is mixed with dried papaya seeds.
This adulterant can be easily identified by
simple chemical tests.
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Government initiatives:
In India, the Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare is completely responsible for
providing safe food to the citizens. The
Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954
has laid down guidelines to provide pure
and wholesome foods to consumers. The
Act was last amended in 1986 to make
punishments more stringent and to
empower consumers further. But recently,
the government is planning to enforce
harsher punishment. The FSSAI has issued
the draft amendments to the Food Safety
and Standards (FSS) Act, which was
passed in 2006 but the regulations were
notified only in 2011. Among key
amendments, FSSAI has proposed to
include a new section to crack down on
food adulteration. For example, "Any
person...adds an adulterant to food so as to
render it injurious for human consumption
with an inherent potential to cause his

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death or is likely to cause grievous hurt,
irrespective of the fact whether it causes
actual injury or not, shall be punishable for
a term which shall not be less than 7 years
but which may extend to imprisonment for
life and also fine which shall not be less
than Rs 10 lakh," the FSSAI said.
Among other amendments, FSSAI has
proposed setting of state food safety
authorities so that this law can be enforced
in letter and spirit. It has also proposed
increase in the punishment for obstructing,
impersonating, intimidating and threatening
and assaulting a food safety officer. The
regulatory body has recommended
imprisonment of not less than 6 months and
up to two years, besides penalty of up to Rs
5 lakh. At present, the imprisonment is up
to three months and fine is up to Rs 1 lakh.
One of the among the new stringent
conditions of the FSSAI is that it has further
proposed that a person convicted under this

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law will have to pay fees and other
expenses incidental to the analysis of any
food or food contact article in respect of
which the conviction is obtained and any
other reasonable expenses incurred by the
prosecution. This has been proposal was
made in line with provision of Singapore's
Sale of Food Act.
Some agencies have been set up by the
Government of India to remove adulterants
from food stuff
AGMARK – (Acronym for Agriculture
Marketing.) -This organization certifies food
products for their quality .Their objective is
to promote the grading and standardization
of agricultural and allied commodities.
FSSAI - (Food Safety and Standard
Authority of India) - FSSAI has been
created for laying down science based
standards for articles of food and to
regulate their manufacture, storage,

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distribution, sale and import to ensure
availability of safe and wholesome food for
human consumption.

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 THEORY
What is food adulteration ?
Food adulteration is an act of adding or
mixing of poor quality, inferior, harmful,
substandard, useless or unnecessary
substances to foods. This act of spoiling the
nature and quality of food items is
considered food adulteration.
The products are marketed in a tricky
manner, which is usually cheating the
customers. However, Food Safety and
Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) have
made strong laws against adulteration; it's
still not stopping the small vendors and
businessmen to cheat customers.
The Annual Public Laboratory Testing
Report for 2014-15 brought out by the Food
Safety and Standards Authority of India
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(FSSAI) says that of the 49,290 samples of
food items it tested, 8,469, nearly one-fifth,
were found adulterated or misbranded.
What are the types of food
adulterants?
Milk Adulteration
Milk adulteration is one of the most
common adulterations in India. Milk is most
commonly diluted with water, this leads lose
in its nutritional value and water
contaminates milk ensuring health
problems. Apart from water, many kinds of
liquid such as soya milk, starch, groundnut
milk, and wheat flour are added to milk.
This also makes the milk less nutritious and
it results in the quickest contamination of
milk.
Adulteration of oils

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Vegetable oils and fats have a big
contribution in our diet as cooking or frying
oil, salad oil or in food product formulation.
But these are adulterated with cheap oil.
One of the common practices adopted by
unscrupulous traders and middle men is
mixing palm oil or cheap edible oils with
cooking oils such as easily available rice
bran oil or waste vegetable oil. Besides,
there have been instances of packets of
sunflower, soybean and groundnut
containing cheap cotton seed oil. With the
increase in use of olive oil for its health
benefits mainly for salad dressing, the most
common adulteration in olive oil is mixing
extra-virgin olive oil with low-grade oils.
Apart from this, Canola oil is mixed with
olive oil and then the mixture is chemically
deodorized, colored and possibly flavored
to make it appear as "extra-virgin" oil. Many
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also use colza oil to mix with the vegetable
olive oil.
Food grain adulteration
It involves mixing sand or crushed stones to
increase the weight of food grains. Cereal
grains and pulses are mixed with plastic
beads that resemble grains in colour and
size. Very often, water is also sprayed on
grains to increase the weight.
Other Adulterations
Chili powder is often mixed with brick
powder, while tea leaves are often mixed
with used tea leaves.
HEALTH HAZARDS OF FOOD
ADULTERATION
Some health hazards associated with
specific food adulteration incudes;

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 Mineral oil if added to edible oil and fats
can cause cancers.
 Lead chromate when added to turmeric
powder and spices can cause anemia,
paralysis, brain damage and abortions.
 Lead added to water, natural and
processed food can lead to lead
poisoning, foot drop, insomnia,
constipation, anemia, and mental
retardation.
 Cobalt added to water and liquors and
can cause cardiac damage also copper,
tin, and zinc can cause colic, vomiting
and diarrhea.
 Mercury in mercury fungicide treated
grains, or mercury-contaminated fish
can cause brain damage, paralysis, and
death.

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MITIGATION MEASURES FOR
ADDRESSING FOOD
ADULTERATION
 There must be proper surveillance of the
implementation food laws.
 There should be monitoring of the
activities with periodical records of
hazards regarding food adulteration.
 There should be periodical training
programmes for Senior
Officer/Inspector/Analysts for food
safety
 There should be consumer awareness
programmes organized by holding
exhibitions/seminars/training
programmes and publishing pamphlets.
 There should be strict actions regarding
the punishment for those who are
involved in food adulteration.
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  There should be help and support from
International INGOs for implementation
of food laws.

EXPERIMENT 1
AIM:
To detect the presence of adulterants in fat,
oil and butter
REQUIREMENTS:
Test tube, conc. HCL, Furfural, 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:
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1) Adulteration of vegetable ghee in
desi ghee (Bandouin Test)
1. Take small amount of desi ghee
in a test tube and add to it 1ml of HCL
and 2-3 drops of 2% alcoholic
solution of 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.
2) Adulteration of paraffin wax and
hydrocarbon in vegetable ghee
1. 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 hydrocarbon.
3) Adulteration of dyes in fat
1. Heat 1mL of fat with a mixture of
1mL of conc. sulphuric acid and4mL
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 of acetic acid. Appearance of pink or
red colour indicates the presence of
dye in fat.
4) Adulteration of argemone oil in
edible oils
1. 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 the
presence of argemone oil.

EXPERIMENT 2
AIM:
To detect the presence of adulterants in
sugar.
REQUIREMENTS:
Test-tubes, dil. HCl.

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PROCEDURE:
Sugar is usually contaminated with washing
soda and other insoluble substances which
are detected as follows:
1. Adulteration of various insoluble
substances in sugar
1. 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.
2. Adulteration of chalk powder, washing
soda in sugar
1. 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.

EXPERIMENT 3
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AIM:
To detect the presence of adulterants in
samples of chilli powder, turmeric powder
and pepper.
REQUIREMENTS:
Test-tubes, conc. HCl, dil. HNO3 and 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:
1) Adulteration of red lead salts in
chilli powder
1. To a sample of chilli powder, add
dil. HNO Filter the solution and add 2
drops of potassium iodide solution to
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 the filtrate. Yellow ppt indicates the
presence of lead salts in chilli
powder.
2) Adulteration of yellow lead salts
to turmeric powder
1. To a sample of turmeric powder
add conc. HCl. Appearance of magenta
colour shows the presence of yellow
oxides of lead in turmeric powder.
3) Adulteration of brick powder in red chilli
powder
1. 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.
4) Adulteration of dried papaya seeds in
pepper
1. Add small amount of sample of
pepper to a beaker containing water
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 and stir with a glass rod. Dried papaya
seeds being lighter float overwater while
pure pepper settles at the bottom.

OBSERVATIONS
S.N Experiment Procedure Observatio
O n
1 Adulteratio Take small
n of amount of
vegetable desi ghee in
ghee in a test tube
desi ghee and add to it
(Bandouin 1ml of HCL
Test) and 2-3

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 drops of 2%
alcoholic
solution of
furfural.
Shake the
contents
vigorously.
Appearance
of red colour
in the acid
layer shows
2 Adulteratio Heat small
n of amount of
paraffin vegetable
wax and ghee with
hydrocarbo acetic
n in anhydride.
vegetable Droplets of
ghee oil floating
on the
surface of
unused
acetic
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 anhydride
indicates the
presence of
wax or
hydrocarbon
.

3 Adulteratio Heat 1mL of

n of dyes in fat with a
fat mixture of
1mL of conc.
sulphuric
acid and4mL
of acetic
acid.
Appearance
of pink or
red colour
indicates the
presence of

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 dye in fat.
4 Adulteratio To small
n of amount of oil
argemone in a test-
oil in edible tube, add
oils few drops of
conc. HNO3
and shake.
Appearance
of red colour
in the acid
layer
indicates the
presence of
argemone
oil.
5 Adulteratio Take small
n of amount of
various sugar in a
insoluble test-tube
substances and shake it
in sugar with little
water. Pure
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 sugar
dissolves in
water but
insoluble
impurities do
not dissolve.
6 Adulteratio To small
n of chalk amount of
powder, sugar in a
washing test-tube,
soda in add few
sugar drops of dil.
HCl.Brisk
effervescenc
e of CO2
shows the
presence of
chalk
powder or
washing
soda.
7 Adulteratio To a sample
n of red of chilli
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 lead salts powder, add
in chilli dil. HNO
powder 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.

8 Adulteratio To a sample
n of yellow of turmeric
lead salts powder add
to turmeric conc. HCl.
powder Appearance
of magenta

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 colour
shows the
presence of
yellow
oxides of
lead in
turmeric
powder.

9 Adulteratio Add small

n of brick amount of
powder in given red
red chilli chilli powder
powder in beaker
containing
water. Brick
powder
settles at the
bottom while
pure chilli
powder
floats over

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 water.

10 Adulteratio Add small

n of dried amount of
papaya sample of
seeds in pepper to a
pepper beaker
containing
water and
stir with a
glass rod.
Dried
papaya
seeds being
lighter float
overwater
while pure
pepper
settles at the
bottom.

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 RESULT
The required analysis for adulterants in
food stuffs has been here.

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 CONCLUSION
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
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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.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
WEBSITES:
o www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adulterated_f
ood
o www.sciencedirect.com/topics/foods
cience/food-adulteration
o www.civilserviceindia.com/currentaff
airs/articles/food-adulteration-in-
india.html
o www.indiatoday.in/education-
today/gk-current-
34
 affairs/story/common-food-
adulterants-in-india
o www.shareyouressays.com/knowled
ge/4-different-types-of-food-
adulteration-and-its-harmful-
effects/110968
o www.vikaspedia.in/health/health-
campaigns/beware-of-
adulteration/adulteration
BOOKS:
o Comprehensive Practical Manual

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