SIMPLE TESTS FOR DETECTION OF ADULTERATION IN FOODS

DR. ARCHANA KUSHWAHA ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

DEPARTMENT OF FOODS & NUTRITION COLLEGE OF HOME SCIENCE GBPUA&T, PANTNAGAR-263145

Adulteration in food
y Crude form--prohibited substances are either added

or partly or wholly substituted. y India--financial gain carelessness --lack in proper hygienic condition of processing, storing, transportation and marketing. y Consumer cheated --victim of diseases. y Precautions --consumer --time of purchase knowledge --common adulterants --effect on health.

Injurious Adulterants/Contaminants in Foods and their Health Effects

S. Adulterant No Adulterants in food
1 2 Argemone seeds Argemone oil

Foods Commonly Involved

Mustard seeds Edible oils and fats

Diseases or Health Effects

4 5 6 7

Epidemic dropsy, Glaucoma, Cardiac arrest Artificially coloured foreign As a substitute for cumin Injurious to health seeds seed, Poppy seed, black pepper Foreign leaves or exhausted Tea Injurious to health, cancer tea leaves, saw dust artificially coloured TCP Oils Paralysis Rancid oil Oils Destroys vitamin A and E Damage digestive tract Lathyrism (crippling spastic paraplegia)

Sand, marble chips, stones, Food grains, pulses etc. filth Lathyrus sativus Khesari dal alone or Mixed in other pulses

Bacterial contamination
20 Bacillus cereus Cereal products, custards, puddings, Food infection (nausea, sauces vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhoea) Salmonella spp. Meat and meat products, raw Salmonellosis (food infection vegetables, salads, shell-fish, eggs usually with fever and chills) and egg products, warmed-up leftovers Shigella sonnei Milk, potato, beans, poultry, tuna, Shigellosis (bacillary dysentery) shrimp, moist mixed foods Staphylococcus aureus Dairy products, baked foods Increased salivation, vomiting, Entero-toxins-A,B,C,D or E especially custard or cream-filled abdominal cramp, diarrhoea, foods, meat and meat products, low- severe thirst, cold sweats, acid frozen foods, salads, cream prostration sauces, etc. Clostridium botulinus Defectively canned low or medium- Botulism (double vision, toxins acid foods; meats, sausages, smoked muscular paralysis, death due A,B,E or F vacuum-packed fish, fermented food to respiratory failure) etc. Clostridium.perfringens Milk improperly processed or Nausea, abdominal pains, (Welchii) type A canned meats, fish and gravy stocks diarrhoea, gas formation

21

22 23

24

25

Additives in food
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Diethyl stilbestrol (additive in animal feed) 3,4 Benzopyrene Excessive solvent residue Non-food grade or contaminated packing material Non-permitted colour or permitted food colour beyond safe limit BHA and BHT beyond safe limit Monosodium glutamate(flour) (beyond safe limit) Coumarin and dihydro coumarin Food flavours beyond safe limit Brominated vegetable oils Sulphur dioxide and sulphite beyond safe limit Artificial sweetners beyond safe limit Meat Smoked food Solvent extracted oil, oil cake etc. Food Coloured food Oils and fats Chinese food, products Flavoured food Flavoured food Cold drinks In variety of food as preservative Sweet foods meat and Sterlites, fibroid tumors etc. Cancer Carcinogenic effect Blood clot, angiosarcoma, cancer etc. Mental retardation, cancer and other toxic effect. Allergy, liver damage, increase in serum chloresterol etc. meat Brain damage, mental retardation in infants Blood anticoagulant Chances of liver cancer Anemia, enlargement of heart Acute irritation of intestinal tracts etc. Chances of cancer the gastro-

Fungal contamination
38 Aflatoxins Aspergillus flavus- Liver damage and cancer contaminated foods such as groundnuts, cottonseed, etc. Ergot-infested bajra, rye Ergotism (St.Anthonys firemeal or bread burning sensation in extremities, itching of skin, peripheral gangrene) Grains (millet, wheat, Alimentary toxic aleukia(ATA) oats, rye,etc) (epidemic panmyelotoxicosis) Moist grains Urov disease (Kaschin-Beck disease) Yellow rice Toxic mouldy rice disease

39

40 41 42

43

Ergot alkaloids from Claviceps purpurea Toxic alkaloids, ergotamine, ergotoxin and ergometrine groups Toxins from Fusarium sporotrichioides Toxins from Fusarium sporotrichiella Toxins from Penicillium inslandicum Penicillium atricum, Penicillium citreovirede, Fusarium, Rhizopus, Aspergillus Sterigmatocystin from Aspergillus versicolour Aspergillus nidulans and bipolaris

Foodgrains

Hepatitis

Parasite/ bacterial / virus infection through food 44 Ascaris Any raw food or water lumbricoides contaminated by human faces containing eggs of the parasite 45 Entamoeba Raw vegetables and fruits histolytica Viral 46 Virus of infectious Shell-fish, milk, unheated foods Hepatitis (virus A) contaminated with faeces, urine and blood of infected human 47 Machupo virus Foods contaminated with rodents urine, such as cereals

Ascariasis

Amoebic dysentery

Infectious hepatitis

Bolivian haemorrhagic fever

Natural Contamination
48 Flouride Drinking water, sea foods, tea, Excess fluoride causes fluorosis etc. (mottling of teeth, skeletal and neurological disorders) Spinach, amaranth, etc. Renal calculi, cramps, failure of blood to clot Cottonseed flour and cake Cancer Bitter almonds, apple seeds, Gastro-intestinal disturbances cassava, some beans etc. Smoked fish, meat, mineral oil- Cancer contaminated water, oils, fats and fish, especially shell-fish Toxic mushrooms Mushroom poisoning (Hypoglycemia, convulsions, profuse watery stools, severe necrosis of liver leading to hepatic failure and death) Potatoes Solanine poisoning (vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhoea)

49 50 51 52

Oxalic acid Gossypol Cyanogenetic compounds Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons(PAH) Phalloidine (Alkaloid)

53

54

Solanine

Chemical contaminants
55 Nitrates and Nitrites Drinking water, spinach Methaemoglobinaemia especially in rhubarb, asparagus, etc. and infants, cancer and tumours in the meat products liver, kidney, trachea oesophagus and lungs. The liver is the initial site but afterwards tumours appear in other organs. Asbestos (may be present in Polished rice, pulses, Absorption in particulate form by the talc, Kaolin, etc. and in processed foods containing body may produce cancer processed foods) anti-caking agents, etc. Pesticide residues (beyond All types of food Acute or chronic poisoning with safe limit) damage to nerves and vital organs like liver, kidney, etc. Antibiotics (beyond safe limit) Meats from antibiotic-fed Multiple drug resistance hardening of animals arteries, heart disease

56

57

58

Simple Screening test for Detecting Adulteration in Common Food

S. N. 1 Food article Vegetable oil Adulteration Castor oil Test Take 1 ml. of oil in a clean dry test tube. Add 10 ml. Of acidified petroleum ether. Shake vigorously for 2 minutes. Add 1 drop of Ammonium Molybdate reagent. The formation of turbidity indicates presence of Castor oil in the sample. Add 5 ml, conc. HNO3 --to 5 ml.sample. Shake carefully. Allow to separate yellow, orange yellow, crimson colour in the lower acid layer indicates adulteration. Boil 5 ml. Of the sample in a test tube. Cool and a drop of iodine solution. Blue colour indicates presence of Starch. colour disappears on boiling & reappears on cooling. Take 5 ml. Of the sample in a test tube. Add 5 ml. Of Hydrochloric acid and 0.4 ml of 2% furfural solution or sugar crystals. Insert the glass stopper and shake for 2 minutes. Development of a pink or red colour indicates presence of Vanaspati in Ghee.

Argemone oil

Ghee

Mashed Potato Sweet Potato, etc.

Vanaspati

Rancid stuff (old Take one teaspoon of melted sample and 5 ml. Of HCl in a ghee) stoppered glass tube. Shake vigorously for 30 seconds. Add 5 ml. Of 0.1% of ether solution of Phloroglucinol. Restopper & shake for 30 seconds and allow to stand for 10 minutes. A pink or red colour in the lower(acid layer) indicates rancidity. Synthetic Colouring Matter Pour 2 gms. Of filtered fat dissolved in ether. Divide into 2 portions. Add 1 ml. Of HCl to one tube. Add 1 ml. Of 10% NaOH to the other tube. Shake well and allow to stand. Presence of pink colour in acidic solution or yellow colour in alkaline solution indicates added colouring matter. Fiehes Test: Add 5 ml. Of solvent ether to 5 ml. Of honey. Shake well and decant the ether layer in a petri dish. Evaporate completely by blowing the ether layer. Add 2 to 3 ml. Of resorcinol (1 gm. Of resorcinol resublimed in 5 ml. Of conc. HCl.) Appearance of cherry red colour indicates presence of sugar/jaggery.

Honey

Invert sugar/jaggery

Aniline Chloride Test : Take 5 ml. Of honey in a porcelain dish. Add Aniline Chloride solution (3 ml of Aniline and 7 ml. Of 1:3 HCl) and stir well. Orange red colour indicates presence of sugar. 4. Pulses/Besan Kesari sativus) dal(Lathyrus Add 50 ml. Of dil.HCl to a small quantity of dal and keep on simmering water for about 15 minutes. The pink colour, if developed indicates the presence of Kesari dal. Add conc.HCl to a small quantity of dal in a little amount of water. Immediate development of pink colour indicates the presence of metanil yellow and similar colour dyes. Shake 5 gm. Of pulse with 5 ml. Of water and add a few drops of HCl. Pink colour indicates Lead Chromate. Swollen and black Ergot infested grains will turn light in weight and will float also in water

Pulses

Metanil Yellow(dye)

Lead Chromate 6 Bajra Ergot infested Bajra

Wheat flour

Excessive & dirt

sand Shake a little quantity of sample with about 10 ml. Of Carbon tetra chloride and allow to stand. Grit and sandy matter will collect at the bottom. Sprinkle on water surface. Bran will float on the surface. Shake sample with dil.HCl Effervescence indicates chalk. Extract the sample with Petroleum ether and add 13N H2SO4 to the extract. Appearance of red colour (which persists even upon adding little distilled water) indicates the presence of added colours. However, if the colour disappears upon adding distilled water the sample is not adulterated.

Excessive bran Chalk powder 8 Common Colour spices like Turmeric, chilly, curry powder,etc. Black Pepper

Papaya seeds/light Pour the seeds in a beaker containing Carbon tetra-chloride. berries, etc. Black papaya seeds float on the top while the pure black pepper seeds settle down.

10 11

Spices(Groun Powdered bran and Sprinkle on water surface. Powdered bran and sawdust float on d) saw dust the surface. Coriander powder Dung powder Soak in water. Dung will float and can be easily detected by its foul smell.

Common salt 12 Chillies

To 5 ml. Of sample add a few drops of silver nitrate. White precipitate indicates adulteration.

Brick powder grit, sand, Pour the sample in a beaker containing a mixture of dirt, filth, etc. chloroform and carbon tetrachloride. Brick powder and grit will settle at the bottom. Choti Elaichi seeds Separate out the seeds by physical examination. The seeds of Badi Elaichi have nearly plain surface without wrinkles or streaks while seeds of cardamom have pitted or wrinkled ends.

13

Badi Elaichi seeds Turmeric Powder

14

Starch of maize, wheat, A microscopic study reveals that only pure turmeric is yellow tapioca, rice coloured, big in size and has an angular structure. While foreign/added starches are colourless and small in size as compared to pure turmeric starch. Lead Chromate Ash the sample. Dissolve it in 1:7 Sulphuric acid (H2SO4) and filter. Add 1 or 2 drops of 0.1% dipenylcarbazide. A pink colour indicates presence of Lead Chromate. Add few drops of conc.Hydrochloric acid (HCl) to sample. Instant appearance of violet colour, which disappears on dilution with water, indicates pure turmeric. If colour persists Metanil yellow is present.

15

Turmeric

Metanil Yellow

16 17

Cumin seeds (Black jeera) Asafoetida(Heeng )

Grass seeds coloured Rub the cumin seeds on palms. If palms with charcoal dust turn black adulteration in indicated. Soap stone, matter Chalk other earthy Shake a little quantity of powdered sample with water. Soap stone or other earthy matter will settle at the bottom. Shake sample with Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4). Asafoetida will settle down. Decant the top layer and add dil.HCl to the residue. Effervescence shows presence of chalk. Take a filter paper impregnated with Ninhydrin (1% in alcohol.) Put some grains on it and then fold the filter paper and crush the grains with hammer. Spots of bluish purple colour indicate presence of hidden insects infestation

18

Foodgrains

Hidden insect infestation