LAHORE: Food adulteration has not subsided, although rates of most foods have doubled in the past three years. Provincial governments that have failed to contain rising prices cannot be expected to contain adulteration.
Food is the basic need of life. What do we work for day and night? Whole, nutritious food for just two bites. And if at the end of the day we’re not sure what we’re eating, what are we working for?
We may eat dangerous dyes, sawdust, soapstone, industrial starch, aluminum foil and believe it, even horse manure! Unfortunately, we invite illness rather than good health.
Even in branded chocolates, cases of worms can often be heard, and although manufacturers usually claim that poor storage conditions at the retailer are to blame, the fact is that the end user suffers as a result.
The fact that the food we eat frequently contains poison is not a new story. In fact, a lot is being done about the legendary “Pakistani Immunity” which is said to be able to digest anything. The question that arises is why should we? And what are the law enforcement agencies doing? Look in the other direction, ignore it, sit on files and be bought and bribed!
With food prices soaring, unadulterated foods have become alarmingly rare on the market these days. The vendors, wholesalers, and retailers mix everything from brick dust, soap ingredients to fabric paints with commonly eaten foods to deceive people.
Various studies show that these adulterants, when consumed, can cause cancer of various organs, hyperacidity, kidney disease, leukemia and bone marrow cancer. The most common and mostly ignored contaminants are dyes, which are imported to change the color of textiles and leather. But dishonest manufacturers use these in confectionery, beverages, candy, and other snacks.
Pure butter oil and ghee are also very rare on the market. Dishonest traders use a variety of ingredients – animal fat, palm oil, mashed potatoes, and vegetable oil – to make fake butter oil.
They even mix stearic oil, a component in soap, with ghee to increase the percentage. The red chilli powder used in the market is counterfeit. 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 appears impossible in the current scenario. The best the media can do is create awareness among consumers about things that are mixed in the food they buy. In many cases the adulteration could easily be verified by the consumers. Adulteration of milk, for example, is very common. The addition of water can easily be checked with 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. Milk contaminated with water, on the other hand, flows immediately without leaving any traces. To check for urea contamination, take 5 ml of milk in a test tube and add 2 drops of bromothymol blue solution. The development of a blue color after 10 minutes indicates the presence of urea.
Chalk or powder in sugar can be checked by dissolving a certain amount in a glass of water, chalk or powder will settle. To check if the candy foil is aluminum or silver, burn the foil. Real silver burns completely and leaves a brilliant white ball of equal mass, while aluminum foil crumbles into black-gray ash.
To check the adulteration of water in honey, dip a cotton swab 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 burn with a crackling sound.
To check the adulteration of the leaves in the tea, rub the tea on white paper, the artificial color will come out on the paper. To check for suspected used tea, sprinkle the tea on wet filter paper. Pink or red spots on the paper indicate the color of the tea used. Checking the iron filling in the tea is easy as all you have to do is move a magnet over the tea leaves to confirm this.
These are just a few of the tests that most households could do. But adulteration in most edibles can only be checked in food laboratories, which are rare in Pakistan.
Samples sent to government laboratories are tampered with using snap money. Even the wrong bottled water is cleaned by some of them.
