Handy Tests to Detect Adulterants In Food

Whenever we move out to buy food for our family, most of us are always concerned about two things: First, nutrition it’s offering and secondly, whether or not it is safe to consume. Adulteration may cause many toxic and hazard reactions to the body, which can lead to many kinds of health problems and even death. Hence, we have to be aware of the quality of food we eat and know some tricky ways to find adulterants in food items. Here are some easy ways to detect some adulterants in common food items.

How to Detect water in Milk:

Put a drop of milk on a smooth surface and tilt the surface. If you see a trail left behind after the milk drop ran down smoothly on the surface it means milk is pure. However, if milk quickly flows down without leaving a trail, water has been added to milk.

How to Detect Starch in Milk:
Add few drops of tincture iodine in milk. If it’s adulterated with starch you will notice blue color formation.

How to Detect Detergent in Milk:
Take half cup milk and add half-cup water in it. Shake well. If you see too much lather formed after stirring the mixture, it means detergent is added to the milk. But if you see only a thin lather, milk is free from detergent.

How to Detect Added Food Color in Food grains:
Take a transparent glass bowl. Put some food grains inside the glass bowl. Pour some water and stir with a clean spoon. Food grains adulterated with colors tend to leave color in water.

How to Detect Added Food Color in Red Chilli Powder:
Put some red chilli powder inside a transparent glass bowl. Add water and mix it well with spoon. If the chilli powder is adulterated with color it will show up quickly inside water.

How to Detect Added Color in Turmeric Powder:
Here too we have to follow the same steps as described above to check the presence of food color in turmeric. Put some turmeric powder inside a transparent glass container. Add some water to it. If artificial color is added to it, it will immediately start dissolving in water but pure turmeric will just leave a light yellow color before settling down.

How to Differentiate between Common Salt and Iodized Salt:
Cut a potato and put some salt over it. After a minute or so put few drops of lemon juice over it. Development of blue color indicates that the salt used is iodized.

How to Detect TOCP in Oils:
Take some oil in a bowl and add solid yellow butter to it. Formation of red color indicates presence of tri-ortho-cresyl phosphate (TOCP) in it.

How to Detect Adulteration in Coconut Oil:
Coconut oil solidifies upon refrigeration but if it is adulterated with some other oil, the other oil will not solidify and will remain as a distinct layer.

How to Detect Foreign Resin in Asafoetida (Hing):
Place a small quantity of asafoetida in steel spoon and burn it in flame. If the asafoetida is pure, it with burn brightly, but if its adulterated it will not produce a bright flame.

Now a tricky one,
How to Detect Papaya Seeds in Black Pepper:
Put some seed inside a glass of water. Black pepper seeds settle down but the papaya seeds float on the water surface.

How to Detect Exhausted Tea in Tea Leaves:
Take a filter paper and put some tealeaves over it. Sprinkle water over it. Now wash the filter paper and check whether it shows stains on surface. Pure tea doesn’t leave any stain over the washed filter paper.

How to Detect Saw Dust in Chilli Powder:
Take a tsp of chilli powder and put it inside a glass. Pour some water over it. If sawdust is present in it, it will float on water surface. Pure chili powder will settle at the bottom.