Investigatory

Project
(Study of common food adulterants
in fat, oil, butter, sugar, turmeric
powder, chilli powder and pepper)

Submitted by:
Abhinaya Krishna
K.S
Grade XII ‘C’
 Acknowledgement

I would like to express my special

gratitude to my teacher Mrs. Deepa who
gave me the golden opportunity and
supported me to do this wonderful project
on the topic Study of common food
adulterants in fat, oil, butter, sugar,
turmeric powder, chilli powder and
pepper. This project also helped me in
doing a lot of research and I came to know
about so many new things I am thankful to
them
 Table of Contents

• INTRODUCTION
• THEORY
• EXPERIMENT 1: To detect the
presence of adulterants in fat, oil and
butter.
• EXPERIMENT 2: To detect the
presence of adulterants in sugar.
• EXPERIMENT 3: To detect the
presence of adulterants in chilli powder,
turmeric powder and pepper.
• CONCLUSION
• PRECAUTION
 INTRODUCTION

Food is one of the basic necessities for sustenance of life.

Pure, fresh and healthy diet is most essential for the health of
the people. It is no wonder to say that community health is
national wealth. Adulteration of food-stuffs was so rampant,
widespread and persistent that nothing short of a somewhat
drastic remedy in the form of a comprehensive legislation
became the need of the hour.
To check this kind of anti-social evil a concerted and
determined onslaught was launched by the Government by
introduction of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Bill in the
Parliament to herald an era of much needed hope and relief
for the consumers at large.
‘Adulteration of food-stuffs and other goods’ is now included
in the Concurrent List (III) in the Constitution of India. It has,
therefore, become possible for the Central Government to
enact all India legislation on this subject. The Bill replaces all
local food adulteration laws where they exist and also applies
to those States where there are no local laws on the subject.
Among others, it provides for —
• A Central Food Laboratory to which food samples can be
referred to for final opinion in disputed cases (clause 4),
• A Central Committee for Food Standards consisting of
representatives of Central and State Governments to advise on
matters arising from the administration of the Act (clause 3),
• The vesting in the Central Government of the rule-making
power regarding standards of quality for the articles of food
and certain other matters (clause 22)

THEORY

The increasing number of food producers and the outstanding

amount of import foodstuffs enables the producers to mislead
and cheat consumers. To differentiate those who take
advantage of legal rules from the ones who commit food
adulteration is very difficult. The consciousness of consumers
would be crucial. Ignorance and unfair market behaviour may
endanger consumer health and misleading can lead to
poisoning. So we need simple screening tests for their
detection. In the past few decades, adulteration of food has
become one of the serious problems. Consumption of
adulterated food causes serious diseases like cancer,
diarrhoea, asthma, ulcers, etc. Majority of fats, oils and butter
are paraffin wax, castor oil and hydrocarbons. Red chilli
powder is mixed with brick powder and pepper is mixed with
dried papaya seeds. These adulterants can be easily identified
by simple chemical tests. Several agencies have been set up
by the Government of India to remove adulterants from food
stuffs. AGMARK: Acronym for agricultural marketing.... this
organization certifies food products for their quality. Its
objective is to promote the Grading and Standardization of
agricultural and allied commode
ACT 37 OF 1954
 The Prevention of Food Adulteration Bill was passed by
both the house of Parliament and received the assent of the
President on 29th September, 1954. It came into force on 1st
June, 1955 as THE PREVENTION OF FOOD
ADULTERATION ACT, 1954 (37 of 1954)
LIST OF ADAPTATION ORDER AND
AMENDING ACTS:
1. The Adaptation of Laws (No.3) Order, 1956.
2. The Prevention of Food Adulteration (Amendment) Act,
1964 (49 of 1964).
3. The Prevention of Food Adulteration (Amendment) Act,
1971 (41 of 1971).
4. The Prevention of Food Adulteration (Amendment) Act,
1976 (34 of 1976).
5. The Prevention of Food Adulteration (Amendment) Act,
1986 (70 of 1986).
EXPERIMENT 1:

AIM:
To detect the presence of adulterants in fat, oil and butter.
REQUIREMENTS: Test-tube, acetic anhydride, conc.
H2SO4, acetic acid, conc. HNO3.
PROCEDURE:
Common adulterants present in ghee and oil are paraffin
wax, hydrocarbons, dyes and argemone oil. These are detected
as follows:
(i) Adulteration of paraffin wax and hydrocarbon in
vegetable ghee-Heat small amount of vegetable ghee with
acetic anhydride. Droplets of oil floating on the surface of
unused acetic anhydride indicates the presence of wax or
hydrocarbons.
(ii) Adulteration of dyes in fat-Heat 1mL of fat with a
mixture of 1mL of conc. sulphuric acid and 4mL of acetic
acid. Appearance of pink or red colour indicates presence of
dye in fat.
(iii) Adulteration of argemone oil in edible oils-To small
amount of oil in a test-tube, add few drops of conc. HNO3 and
shake. Appearance of red colour in the acid layer indicates
presence of argemone oil
EXPERIMENT 2:

AIM: To detect the presence of adulterants in sugar.

REQUIREMENTS: Test-tubes, dil. HCl.
PROCEDURE: Sugar is usually contaminated with washing
soda and other insoluble substances which are detected as
follows:
(i) Adulteration of various insoluble substances in sugar
Take small amount of sugar in a test-tube and shake it with
little water. Pure sugar dissolves in water but insoluble
impurities do not dissolve.
(ii) Adulteration of chalk powder, washing soda in sugar
To small amount of sugar in a test-tube, add few drops of dil.
HCl. Brisk effervescence of CO2 shows the presence of chalk
powder or washing soda in the given sample of sugar.

EXPERIMENT 3
AIM: To detect the presence of adulterants in chilli powder,
turmeric powder and pepper.
REQUIREMENTS: Test-tubes, conc. HCl, dil. HNO3, KI
solution
PROCEDURE: Common adulterants present in chilli
powder, turmeric powder and pepper are red coloured lead
salts, yellow lead salts and dried papaya seeds respectively.
They are detected as follows:
(i) Adulteration of red lead salts in chilli powder- To a
sample of chilli powder, add dil. HNO3. Filter the solution
and add 2 drops of potassium iodide solution to the filtrate.
Yellow ppt. indicates the presence of lead salts in chilli
powder.
(ii) Adulteration of yellow lead salts to turmeric powder-
To a sample of turmeric powder add conc. HCl. Appearance
of magenta colour shows the presence of yellow oxides of
lead in turmeric powder.
(iii) Adulteration of brick powder in red chilli powder-Add
small amount of given red chilli powder in beaker containing
water. Brick powder settles at the bottom while pure chilli
powder floats over water.

(iv) Adulteration of dried papaya seeds in pepper- Add

small amount of sample of pepper to a beaker containing
water and stir with a glass rod. Dried papaya seeds being
lighter float over water while pure pepper settles at the
bottom.
 CONCLUSION

Selection of wholesome and non-adulterated food is

essential for daily life to make sure that such foods do
not cause any health hazard. It is not possible to ensure
wholesome food only on visual examination when the
toxic contaminants are present in ppm level. However,
visual examination of the food before purchase makes
sure to ensure absence of insects, visual fungus, foreign
matters, etc. Therefore, due care taken by the consumer
at the time of purchase of food after thoroughly
examining can be of great help. Secondly, label
declaration on packed food is very important for
knowing the ingredients and nutritional value. It also
helps in checking the freshness of the food and the
period of best before use. The consumer should avoid
taking food from an unhygienic place and food being
prepared under unhygienic conditions. Such types of
food may cause various diseases. Consumption of cut
fruits being sold in unhygienic conditions should be
avoided. It is always better to buy certified food from
reputed shop
 PRECAUTIONS:
By taking a few precautions, we can escape from
consuming adulterated products.
1. Take only packed items of well-known companies.
2. Buy items from reliable retail shops and recognized
outlets.
3. Check the ISI mark or Agmark.
4. Buy products of only air tight popular brands.
5. Avoid craziness for artificially coloured sweets and
buy only from reputed shops.
6. Do not buy sweets or snacks kept in open.
7. Avoid buying things from street side vendor.
 BIBLOGRAPHY

From the web:

*www.wikipedia.com
*www.scribd.com
*www.google.com
Books:
*Class 12 Chemistry NCERT part-1
*Class 12 Chemistry NCERT part-2
*Comprehensive practical chemistry class 12