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Authorities must intensify surveillance and sampling with stricter penalties
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Friday, 12 December, 2025, 14 : 00 PM [IST]
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Dr Shashank Bhalkar
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Many times, we are attracted to bright yellow sweets in the nearby sweetmeat shop or yellow chickpeas in the market. These appealing foods could be dangerous to our health. They may be adulterated with synthetic dyes, such as Auramine. Auramine O, an artificial dye not permitted for use in foods, keeps appearing in various food items, including bright yellow chickpeas, sweets, turmeric powder, street food snacks, and savoury items, and is a public health concern in India. Taking note of this problem, (1) the food authorities have recently come out with an order to initiate targeted enforcement actions, including inspection, sampling, testing, and subsequent actions for products that are vulnerable to adulteration by auramine in organised, unorganised sectors, e-commerce, for manufacturing, processing, storage, distribution, and sale of such products.
Auramine O is produced from compounds like dimethylalanine and formaldehyde. (2) It finds its industrial uses in textiles, paper, leather, printing inks and so on. It appears as yellow flakes or powder, easily soluble in solvents. This dye is not approved for food use in many countries, including India, the EU, and the US. Its ingestion can lead to many health hazards. Several acute and chronic toxic effects are reported on its ingestion. (3) When ingested, it irritates the respiratory tract, causing coughing, bronchitis, and pneumonia. It induces abdominal pain, nausea, and diarrhoea. If it is in contact with the skin, it can cause itching, peeling, and ulceration. On long-term exposure, it can damage nucleic acids in DNA, affecting liver, kidney, and bone marrow cells. Its long exposure in children may cause hyperactivity and cognitive impairment. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies it as a Group 2B potential carcinogen to humans. Despite stricter regulations, factors such as very low costs, weak enforcement of regulations, and informal trade are some of the reasons responsible for the adulteration of this dye.
Post-Independence, there was a food shortage and a tendency to carry out food adulteration. To control adulteration, the Government of India came out with the “Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954”. The adulteration was defined, and there was severe punishment as per the law. Now, the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), 2006, has replaced PFA. The Act regulates and monitors the manufacture, processing, distribution, sale, and import of food, ensuring the safe and wholesome production of food for human consumption. This law sets food standards and safeguards public health. This law is based on science and is risk-based. The word adulteration no longer exists as per this law. However, adulteration in foods due to various adulterants is still widespread for food products sold in slums, semi-urban, and rural parts of India. This is causing irreversible risk to the health of millions of people. (4) Innocent consumers are cheated due to sub-standard/ poor quality foods despite paying a reasonable price. Food adulteration is still a problem that persists in countries in Southeast Asia regions, where internal food production and distribution are deeply ingrained at community levels. Historically, there have been many episodes reported of mass-scale adulteration. A few examples could be contamination of mustard oil with argemone in 1998 and imported milk formula with melamine in 2008. The new examples include imported toxic lentils sold as local lentils, veterinary drug residues in milk, flours made from mouldy wheat, use of animal fat in bakery products, and industrial contamination in vanaspati. Dry ginger, which is used in kitchens, is often preserved by coating with the dye ultramarine blue; otherwise, it is used as a laundry whitener and can be hazardous to health.
Generally, consumers want to get the maximum commodities at a lower price. Traders and manufacturers want to make more profits. This leads to immoral practices of adding non-permitted foreign matter and/ or removal of vital elements. This is an adulteration done for financial gain. Some of the classic examples of such intentional adulteration are: addition of water in milk, addition of chalk powder in flours, addition of ergot in cereals, addition of chicory or tamarind powder in coffee, and metanil yellow in turmeric. There are unintentional contaminations, such as metallic or incidental contaminations. Metallic contamination happens because of the following reasons: Arsenic from pesticides, lead from water, mercury from chemical effluents, and tin from cans. Examples of incidental contamination are: Pesticides and residues in plants, larvae in foods, rodents and excreta, bodily secretions, and spoilage through microorganisms.
All the food adulterants have bad effects on human health, and some of them are even carcinogenic. The following table provides a few examples of common food adulterants and their adverse health effects.
No.
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Substance
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Adulterant
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Harmful Effect
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1
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Milk
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Unhygienic water
Chalk powder
Soap powder
Hydrogen peroxide
Urea
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Food poisoning
Heart problems
Cancer
Vomiting
Nausea
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2
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Black pepper
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Papaya seeds
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Liver disorders
Stomach
disorders
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3
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Oil
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Argemone oil
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Epidemic dropsy
Severe
glaucoma
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4
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Ghee
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Hydrogenated fat
Animal
fat
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Cardiovascular risk
Cardiovascular
risk
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5
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Chilly powder
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Brick powder
Saw dust
Artificial
colours
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Stomach problems
Stomach problems
May
lead to cancer
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6
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Turmeric powder
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Yellow aniline dye
Non-permitted
colours like metanil yellow
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Carcinogenic
Stomach
disorders
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7
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Spices
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Metanil yellow dye
Brick
powder
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Hyperactivity, Liver
damage, anaemia
Stomach
problems
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The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) regularly monitors food adulteration in India and carries out surveillance. It was observed that in 2016 – 17, 23.4% samples were found to be adulterated. The number was 26.4% in 2018 – 19. Of the 1.5 lakh food samples analysed in 2023 – 24, 33000 were found adulterated, which is more than 20%! The most commonly found adulterants include non-food substances that are added either to increase the weight of the food or to improve its appearance.
Food adulteration persists in India for several reasons mentioned below:
- One third of the food industry is still unaware of food laws. The food supply chain in India is fragmented, with 80% of sales in the informal markets.
- Limited resources by food industries are another constraint hindering to maintenance of quality, safety, and hygiene of the products. There is a shortage of skilled manpower. Some industries resort to cost-cutting without knowing the repercussions. This may cause problems such as the reuse of cooking oils during frying, which leads to the production of products that are harmful to health.
- Neglected supply chain is a key issue. Agricultural produce is the major raw material in food manufacturing. Use of high-intensity pesticides in agriculture leads to high lead residues in the crops that finally contaminate food products.
There is a need to raise awareness about food adulteration, and it should be supported by various efforts.- The need is to develop a skilled workforce in the food processing industry. This could be achieved by extending government programmes like PM Kaushal Yojana to ensure skilled workers.
- Food authorities must intensify the surveillance and sampling of food with stricter penalties that will deter the practices of adulteration for cost-cutting.
- Substandard fortification and misleading labels are a major issue that consumers may ignore. Enhanced monitoring and verification will help to address these issues.
- There is a need to raise consumer awareness to read and understand the food labels beyond just MRP and expiry dates.
Food authorities have made admirable efforts to help resolve the issue of food adulteration. They have published a booklet called DART (Detect Adulteration with Rapid Test). This is freely available as a downloadable PDF on the website. (6) The booklet gives simple tests to detect adulteration for various food products that can be carried out by consumers. The booklet covers a wide range of food products that include Milk and Milk Products, Oils and fats, Sugars and Confectionery, Food Grains and their Products, Salts, Spices, and Condiments, Fruits and Vegetables, and Beverages. In case of doubt regarding a product, the consumers can carry out these tests at home and then report this to the food authorities via a mobile app. There is another simple tool created by the food authorities to detect adulteration. (7) There are links for short YouTube videos that describe the simple tests to detect adulteration. Links for the adulteration detection of 77 commonly used foods are given.
Food adulteration is a serious problem that jeopardises public health in India. This will also affect the productivity and can be a socio-economic concern for India. There are gaps in regulation enforcement, supply chain, resources, and consumer awareness. Regulators have created simple tools for detection. However, there is a need for concerted efforts by the government, industries, and public participation, which will certainly help reduce this menace. This article is a small effort to raise awareness regarding this grave issue.
(The author is executive director, Protein Foods and Nutrition Development Association of India)
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