POISON ON OUR PLATES

The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration’s threemonth crackdown under commissioner Tukaram Mundhe saw 12,083 inspections, 875 arrests and food stock worth ₹67.20 crore seized as authorities targeted adulteration, unhygienic kitchens and food safety violations. If you thought the menace was restricted to Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur or Maharashtra in general, sample this.

Food adulteration is a serious and persistent problem across India, extending well beyond the spike in demand during festive seasons. Recent incidents in Delhi, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have highlighted adulteration of flour, ghee and sweets, leading to hospitalisations and seizures.

The uncomfortable truth is that adulteration has become a thriving business. Almost everything in the kitchen can potentially be tampered with to increase quantity, improve appearance, extend shelf life or simply maximise profit.

Turmeric powder may be mixed with chemical colours to make it appear brighter, salt with chalk powder, peppercorns with dried papaya seeds, coriander powder with sawdust and coffee seeds with tamarind seeds. Vegetables can be coloured with dyes to make them appear fresher, with some of these substances potentially carcinogenic. Brick powder can find its way into chilli powder.

Not only a spicy story

The problem certainly does not end with spices. Pure ghee, a staple in Indian households, is often adulterated with vanaspati, starch or synthetic flavours. Such adulteration reduces its nutritional value and increases unhealthy trans fat content, putting heart health at risk.

Cooking oil is frequently diluted with cheaper oils such as palm oil or mineral oil. Prolonged consumption can damage the liver and kidneys. Even coconut water may be artificially sweetened or diluted with plain water. In particularly abysmal cases, glucose or harmful preservatives are added.

Paneer on your plate may not be as healthy as you think. Unscrupulous sellers often use starch, detergent or synthetic milk to make paneer, making it unsafe for regular consumption.

Milk adulteration is among the oldest and most common practices. Urea, starch, detergent and even formalin are mixed with milk to increase its thickness and shelf life. Such adulteration can lead to kidney damage, gastrointestinal problems and food poisoning.

During festive seasons, sweets become a hotspot for adulteration. The silver coating, or ‘varak’, may contain aluminium instead of real silver, while ‘khoya’ can be mixed with starch. Artificial colours may contain toxic chemicals, with consequences ranging from allergies to organ damage and long-term ailments.

Going nuts over nuts

Dry fruits and nuts are not necessarily immune either. They are often polished with cheap oils or treated with artificial colours to enhance their appearance. Cashews and almonds may even contain insect infestations because of poor storage, posing additional health risks. What makes the problem particularly disturbing is its sheer range. A consumer looking at a brightly coloured vegetable, an attractive sweet, a packet of spices or seemingly fresh paneer has little way of knowing from appearance whether the product is genuine or has been tampered with.

Supreme Court to FSSAI

The issue of what consumers know about the food they buy has also reached the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court has asked the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which has proposed phased implementation of front-ofpackage labelling (FoPL) on packaged foods, to provide more clarification on proposed labels for “nutrients of concern”, including fat, sugar and salt.

FoPL is a nutritional information graphic displayed on food packaging that can help consumers make informed decisions about food purchases and healthier dietary choices.

The FSSAI had earlier told the top court that it proposed a prominent front-ofpack warning label in red for food products high in added saturated fat, added sugar and salt.

What the law says

India has a legal framework to fight the menace. The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954, was the first major law to define food adulteration and punish offenders. It was subsequently replaced by the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, which sets modern standards for food safety. Under these laws, offenders can face heavy fines and imprisonment.

Food inspectors regularly check markets, while consumers have the right to demand purity certificates. But legislation alone cannot solve a problem that is profitable, widespread and constantly changing form. Enforcement has to be frequent enough to make adulteration economically risky rather than merely another cost of doing business.

As old as the food trade

Food adulteration is hardly a modern phenomenon. It is as old as the commercial food trade itself, dating back thousands of years to ancient civilisations such as Rome and Greece, where merchants diluted wine and altered spices for profit.

Merchants mixed water into wine, added lead to sweetened syrups and falsified expensive spices such as pepper with cheaper substitutes. During the Middle Ages, European guilds introduced strict rules and punishments for bakers, butchers and brewers who sold underweight, spoiled or mixed goods.

The methods may have changed, but the motive remains familiar: make a product cheaper to produce, more attractive to sell or more profitable by passing off an inferior product as something better.

Modern regulation developed as governments recognised that adulteration was not merely commercial cheating but also a public health threat. Britain passed the landmark Food and Drink Act 1860 to begin criminalising dangerous food additives and mixtures. Governments subsequently established formal inspection bodies and food safety laws to combat persistent economic fraud and protect consumers.

What’s the future?

The next phase of the fight against adulteration will increasingly depend on technology alongside traditional inspections. Portable biosensors and immunoassays, blockchain traceability and molecular tools could allow authorities to test food rapidly in local markets. Regulatory bodies are also shifting from basic random testing towards greater supply-chain transparency and digital vulnerability assessments.

Food fraud does not necessarily begin at the retail counter. It can occur at several stages between production and final sale. Simple home-testing methods for milk and spices can provide consumers another layer of protection, while digital tracking and blockchain systems could help identify where an adulterated batch originated and how it travelled through the market.

Adulteration and prevention

The FSSAI regulates food safety and penalises violators with fines or imprisonment. But the persistence of adulteration shows why more stringent and frequent raids are necessary. Technology, however, cannot substitute for enforcement, nor can enforcement succeed without consumer awareness. Regulators can test samples, conduct raids and punish offenders, but consumers also need the ability to understand labels, recognise suspicious products and report violations.

That is why the Supreme Court’s focus on nutritional literacy is significant. Knowing what is in our food should not be specialist knowledge available only to regulators, laboratories or nutritionists. It is basic information every consumer should be able to access and understand.

The answer lies in tougher enforcement, more frequent inspections, better testing technology, traceable supply chains, meaningful penalties and a far better informed consumer.

Food safety cannot merely mean acting after adulterated products have been seized or people have fallen ill. The real objective must be to prevent unsafe food from reaching the plate in the first place.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

Robin Roy, The writer is Senior Journalist and former Managing Editor, First India