ADULTERANTS OF FOOD

 Food is essential to the existence of life and provides energy for metabolic activities, thus sustaining all living organisms. In contrast, food adulteration is the addition of low-quality substances or products to food due to economic and technological reasons. This adulterant causes a deterioration of the nutritional content of food, making it unfit for human consumption. Several foods, such as cereals, pulses, dairy products, grains, meat, vegetables, fruits, oils, and beverages, contain adulterants.



Food or food components are often contaminated or added in developing countries. Some of the prevalent causes are business strategies, imitation of another food substance, a lack of knowledge about the consumption of food properly, increasing production and sale of food, rising demand in the population, and maximum profit with minimum investments. The methods of adulteration include application of chemicals for artificial ripening of fruits and vegetables; mixing decayed fruits and vegetables with fresh ones; adding natural and chemical dyes to increase customer attraction; mixing clay, pebbles, stones, sand, and marble chips with grains, legumes, and other crops; and mixing cheaper and inferior ingredients to increase the weight or nature of the product.



Courtesy: Google




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