Roll Number:

Ch
emistry
Investigator
y Project.

Chakravarthy
Bodla

Study of
Adulterants in
Food-Stuffs

index
1

Certificate.

Acknowledgement.

Introduction.

Objective.

Introduction.

Theory.

Experiment 1.

Experiment 2.

Experiment 2.

10

Bibliography.

Certificate
This is to certify that

Chakravarthy. B of class
12,Kendriya vidyalaya,
University of
Hyderabad,
has completed the project
named

Study of Adulterants in Food-Stuffs

during the year 2014-15 towards
partial fulfilment of credit for
Chemistry practical evaluation of
CBSE 2014,
and submitted satisfactory report as
compiled
in the following pages.
Teacher In-charge
Examiner signature
Principle

Acknowledgeme
nt
I would like to express my
sincere gratitude to my
chemistry teacher Mr. E M
Reddy for guiding me
through the project and
helping me overcome the
problems that I encountered.
I am grateful to my parents
for supporting me and
providing me with much
needed help from getting
the material. Lastly, I would

like to thank my friends for

their constant support.

Introduction:
In the last few decades, adulterants of
food has become one of the serious
problems. Consumption of adulterated
food causes serious diseases like cancer,
diarrhea, asthma, ulcers etc. Majority of
adulterants used by the shopkeepers re
substitutes easily available. For example
adulterants in fats, oil and butter are
castor oil and hydrocarbons. Red chilly
power is mixed with brick power and
pepper is mixed with dried papaya seeds.
These adulterants can be easily identified
by simple chemical tests.

Objective of project:
The aim of the project is to study of
the common food adulterants present
in different food-stuffs.

Experiment number 1
.

AIM:
To detect the presence of adulterants in fat,
oil and butter.

Requirements:
Test tube, concentrated HCl, furfural, acetic
anhydride, concentrate H2SO4, acetic acid,
concentrated HNO3.

Procedure:

Common adulterants presents in ghee and oil

are paraffin wax, hydrocarbons, dyes and
argemone oil. These are detected as follows:
1)
Adulteration of vegetable ghee in desi
ghee.
Take small amount of desi ghee in a test
tube and add to it 1ml of HCl and add 2-3
drops of 2% alcoholic solution of furfural.
Shake it vigorously. Appearance of red
colour in acid layer shows that vegetable
ghee has been mixed as an adulterant to
desi ghee.
2)

Adulteration of dyes in fat.

Heat 1ml of fat with a mixture of1ml conc.

H2SO4 and acetic acid. Appearance of pink
or red colour indicates the presence of dye
in fat.
3) Adulteration of argemone oil in edible oil.
To small amount of oil in test tube, add few
drops of conc.HNO3 and shake. Appearance
of red colour in the acid layer indicates
presence of argemone oil.

4) Adulteration of hydrocarbons in vegetable

ghee.
Heat small amount of vegetable ghee with
acetic anhydride. Droplets of oil floating on
the surface of used acetic anhydride
indicates the presence of hydrocarbon.

Experiment number 2
.

AIM:
To detect the presence of adulterants in sugar.

Requirements:

Test tubes, dil. HCl, conc.H2SO4, alcoholic solution

of -naphthol.

Procedure:
Sugar is usually contaminated with washing
soda and other water insoluble substances
detected as follow:
1) Adulteration of various insoluble
substances in sugar.
Take small amount of sugar in attest tube and
shake it with small amount of water. Pure
sugar dissolves in water but insoluble
impurities do not dissolve.
2) Adulteration of chalk powder, washing soda
in sugar.
Take small amount of sugar in test tube, add
few drops of dil. HCl. Brisk effervescence of
co2 shows the presence of chalk powder or
washing soda in sugar.

Experiment number 3
.

AIM:

To detect the presence of adulterants in

samples of chilly powder, turmeric powder
and pepper.

Requirements:
Test tubes, conc. HCl, dil. HNO3, KI solution.

Procedure:
1) Adulteration of red lead salts in chilly
powder.
Take a sample chilly powder add dil.HNO3.
Filter the solution add 2 drops of KI solution to
the filtrate. Yellow ppt. indicates the presence
of red lead salts in chilly powder.
2) Adulteration of yellow lead salts to turmeric
powder.
Take a sample of turmeric powder add conc.
HCl. Appearance of majenta colour shows the
presence of yellow oxides of lead in turmeric
powder.

3) Adulteration of brick powder in red chilly

powder.
Add small amount of given chilly powder in a
beaker containing water. Brick powder settles
at bottom while the pure chilly powder floats
over water.
4) Adulteration of dried papaya seeds in
pepper.
Add small amount of sample of pepper to
beaker containing water and stir with a glass
rod. Dried papaya seeds being lighter float
over water while pure pepper settles at the
bottom.

Bibliography:
1) Chemistry textbook. (NCERT XII)
2) Comprehensive Chemistry Lab Manual
XII.