"It is Poisoning Your Life"

A closer look at ADULTERATION

The main aim of adulteration is to earn profit, and the adulterators are not concerned about the health and life of the common man. It is for this very reason that adulterators are adulterating most of the basic

household items such as wheat, rice, millet, corn, flour, arhar dal, chana dal, black and yellow mustard, sunflower oil, sesame oil , safflower oil, mustard oil, groundnut oil, pure ghee, butter, honey,

ketchup, coriander powder, turmeric, refined flour and chilli powder. Even items such as tea, coffee, milk, baby milk powder, squashes, jams, jellies, pickles, canned fruits and vegetables are also adulterated.

Adulterators use dangerous adulterants like fine pebbles, mud, hay, droppings of rodents, inedible talcum powder for polishing, tricreysl phosphate, a mix of inedible oils like mobile oil, argemone oil, castor

oil, mineral oil and rancid oil, margarine, detergent, lead chromate, oxytocin hormone injections, urea, caustic soda, formalin, melamine, ashes of bones, lead, manure, sawdust, chalk powder, sand, sulfur, non-permitted colours and such other dangerous items to adulterate. Due to the presence of the above mentioned adulterants, you could suffer from many diseases and disorders, a few of which are listed. Urea mixed in milk can prove highly dangerous for the heart and kidneys. Caustic soda, which contains sodium, can work as a slow poison for those who suffer from hypertension and other coronary diseases. Formalin is even more dangerous for the body; it can harm the liver. Inedible oils like mobile oil, argemone oil, castor oil, mineral oil and rancid oil can alone or a mix of these can cause deficiency of vitamins A and E, paralysis, liver damage and also increase cholesterol, which can prove fatal. Chalk powder can harm the stomach. Lead poisoning can have harmful effects on your central nervous system. Adulteration can also cause danger of cancers, epidemic dropsy, glaucoma, hepatitis, skin diseases and cardiac arrest. Children may also be affected with diseases in addition to the above, such as anaemia, mental retardation, brain and liver damage.

Today, using adulterated products is costing people their lives. Not only is the lifespan of the elders as well as the other members in the family reducing, but even their quality of life is being affected badly. Children

are being affected even more. Research shows that adulteration has entered all the spheres of our life in such a way that the adulteration quality ratio is approximately 30 : 70. For example, you have purchased an item worth Rs. 100; as it is adulterated, your item is actually worth only Rs. 70, as compared with the price you have paid, which is Rs. 100. Thus, you are buying a product that is not only harmful to health, but also incurring a financial loss as well. We all have to tighten our belts and the government, too, has to deal with this menace strictly, because if this is not curbed, then in the coming years, the adulteration-quality ratio will simply invert, it would become 70 : 30, and if this continues, then, in spite of our wishes, the medical bills of the family would keep on rising many times compared with normal household expenses and the quality of life will keep on worsening and longevity reducing. On knowing this, it is clear that you and your family are daily becoming the victims of adulteration. All information has been derived from the book Food Quality and Safety as well as from other specialists.