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Food adulteration and simple tests to detect it sheet
10-mark answer frame

Define food adulteration. Explain the common adulterants and simple tests to detect them.

How to lay out the answer. Follow the frame, then write it in your own words.

  1. 1 · Open in two lines. Adulteration lowers food quality by adding, substituting or removing something. The FSS Act 2006 treats an adulterant as any material that makes food unsafe, sub-standard or misbranded.
  2. 2 · Explain the legal terms. Unsafe (harms health), sub-standard (below the standard), misbranded (false label or claim), and extraneous matter (sand, stones, hair).
  3. 3 · Types of adulteration. Intentional, incidental and metallic; methods include mixing, substitution, abstraction and colouring.
  4. 4 · Table of tests. [Table: food | adulterant | test | positive result, 8-10 rows: milk-water, milk-starch, ghee-vanaspati, chilli-brick powder, turmeric-metanil yellow, pepper-papaya seeds, tea-used leaves, honey-sugar syrup, sugar-chalk, oil-argemone]
  5. 5 · Home vs laboratory tests. DART screening tests are quick and cheap; an accredited lab confirms with standard methods.
  6. 6 · Application in a food business. Canteens screen milk, ghee, oil and spices on receipt, buy from FSSAI-licensed suppliers and refuse loose, unlabelled spices.
  7. 7 · Close in one line. Awareness, simple tests and firm enforcement together fight adulteration.

Scoring tip: The table carries the marks. Write the exact colour for each test and never mix up iodine (blue, starch) with HCl (pink, metanil yellow).