Food Adulteration

 Food is essential for sustenance of life. We all eat food and gain energy for different metabolic activities. All living organisms need food for growth, work, repair and maintaining life processes.

There are different types of food available today in the market, and on a daily basis, we all depend on various food sources, including vegetables, fruits, cereals, pulses, legumes, etc.

As we buy fresh veggies and other groceries, we might have come across small pebbles in cereals and grains, darkly stained vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, fruits, dark red meat and a lot more.

Food Adulteration can be defined as the practice of adulterating food or contamination of food materials by adding a few substances, which are collectively called adulterants.

Adulterants are the substance or poor quality products added to food items for economic and technical benefits. Addition of these adulterants reduces the value of nutrients in food and also contaminates the food, which is not fit for consumption. These adulterants can be available in all food products which we consume daily, including dairy products, cereals, pulses, grains, meat, vegetables, fruits, oils, beverages, etc.


By - Mayank Goswami 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Food Contamination

  Food contamination   refers to the presence of harmful chemicals and microorganisms in food, which can cause consumer illness. This article addresses the chemical contamination of foods, as opposed to microbiological contamination, which can be found under   food-borne illness . The impact of chemical contaminants on consumer health and well-being is often apparent only after many years of processing and prolonged exposure at low levels (e.g.,  cancer ). Unlike food-borne pathogens, chemical contaminants present in foods are often unaffected by thermal processing. Chemical contaminants can be classified according to the source of contamination and the mechanism by which they enter the food product. This category contains an almost endless list of contamination culprits. Here are just a few: Hair : Every food manufacturer should insist that factory floor workers wear a hairnet to minimise contaminants. Glass or metal : Glass and metal can make their way into your ou...
Read more

Food Preservation

  Food preservation  has been practiced for centuries, with salting generally recognized as the earliest form of preservation. Several intrinsic and extrinsic factors associated with foods serve to promote preservation, the most important of which include: water activity ( a w ), temperature (low or high), preservatives (i.e., nitrite), acidity (pH), competitive microorganisms (i.e., lactic acid bacteria), and redox potential (Eh). These extrinsic and intrinsic factors are limited when applied singly. However, when combined with one another in a sequence or applied simultaneously, the activity of each is considerably enhanced. This effect is likened to a series of hurdles that become increasingly harder to overcome the more hurdles that are utilized. The result is synergistic food preservation referred to as a hurdle effect. To fully understand the effects of these hurdles on microbial populations, extensive research has focused on defining the critical limits for growth, surv...
Read more