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EXERCISE CAUTION Adulterated products can pose health risks

From rice, with easily discernible clay balls, to turmeric whose adulterant is not apparent to the naked eye, many food items can be adulterated.

According to the Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA), Act 1954, a few of the 13 criteria for food to be deemed adulterated are: if the product is not of the quality demanded by the purchaser; if it contains substances that affect its quality; if it contains any poisonous or other ingredient that is injurious to health.

If one goes strictly by the Act, the number of adulterated products we could be using will scare us no end. For instance, a 16-town study in Tamil Nadu conducted by the Centre for Consumer Education, Research, Teaching, Training and Testing (CONCERT), Chennai, shows that tea, ghee, honey and dhal are the most commonly adulterated food items. The others include coffee powder, mustard, cooking oil, milk, sweets and soft drinks.

While a few adulterants can be spotted easily, most cannot. Some common adulterants that are not easily visible include chalk powder (in sugar and salt), starch (milk), papaya seeds (pepper), saw dust (tea), vanaspathi (ghee) and colouring agents (sweets).

Thankfully, adulteration kits such as Annam, launched by CONCERT come in handy. It comes with 10 adulterants, 12 chemicals of 20 ml each, 10 filter papers, two test tubes, red litmus paper, a magnifying glass, a pair of gloves, and a glass dropper. A booklet lists the procedure to test over 25 food items. The kit costs Rs. 500 (excluding tax), and can be obtained from CONCERT (ph: 044-24494576/24494586).

It is common knowledge that in addition to depriving an individual of due nourishment, adulteration also causes problems such as headache, vomiting and diarrhoea. But, is it true that it leads to cancer too? Says Dr. T. Rajkumar, director and scientific director of the Cancer Institute, Chennai: “That is hard to prove. However, some food items may contain adulterants such as colouring agents whose persistent use have the potential to cause cancer. The prudence lies in avoiding such items.”

“A consumer should look for ISI/Agmark certification in products. In many cases, visual examination itself reveals foreign matter, insects or fungal growth,” says P.K. Jaiswal, Director of Laboratories, Central Agmark Laboratory, Nagpur.

Packaging, labelling, date of manufacture and batch number too should be looked into. And, it is very important to retain the bill of such products, he adds.

What is the role of the Government in ensuring that its people are protected? Says P. Padmanaban, Director of Public Health, Tamil Nadu: “Trained food inspectors collect samples every month at random and based on complaints from the public. Once the samples are confirmed to be adulterated, legal action is initiated.”

The Government also conducts awareness programmes once in two months at the State and district level with the help of NGOs, he says.

The big question is, can the common man fight the malady? “Yes,” says S. Martin, advocate and general secretary of the Federation of Consumer Organisations in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. “The easiest, yet, the most powerful thing would be to reject the product or the shop selling the product. The affected consumer can file a complaint with the police, the health officer of the municipality or the Corporation concerned or take the matter to a registered consumer council.”

Interestingly, under the Act, ‘the sale of certain admixtures prohibited’ includes ‘milk which contains added water’. Wonder if our honking milkman knows this!

W. SREELALITHA

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