Adulteration the Crime Against Society

Adulteration

Crime Against Society

            Adulteration is the term used to describe deliberate contamination of food items diluting their purity. This is done in order to increase profitability or sometimes in order to meet the increased demand. Food items could be adulterated by using neutral or non-harmful additives, like mixing pure water in milk, but sometimes the nature of contaminant added is impure, unhygienic, harmful and detrimental to health of consumers like adding urea to milk. Through, adulteration in any form is not acceptable at all but, the latter needs to be identified and rooted out at a priority as it could lead to disastrous circumstances. 

        Food adulteration has become the order of the day and, consumer education and awareness is the need of the hour, assert experts. A common mistake committed by most consumers is to blindly pick up any product without reading the label which includes details like batch number, expiry date, manufacturer's name and address. Sometimes, it is a spurious or duplicate product and can be mistaken for a reputed brand. The consumer has to keep his eyes open while buying a product. One must avoid informal transactions which deprive the consumer of a receipt of the purchases made. 

        Adulteration like corruption has become rampant. People and the government knowns that most of the milk, sugar, tea etc. are adulterated. We have laws against adulteration, but like many other legislations they are rarely enforced as adulteration has become a way of life. The negligent government officials and society are awakened, only when a tragedy takes place.

        Adulteration of food is a very serious ant-social act as it poses a major health hazard. Lack of awareness among people, corrupt officials, even the police sometimes, is the reason why spurious food products continue to hit the shelf. I strongly feel that there is an urgent need to evolve better techniques to detect adulteration. Coordination between various government bodes scrutinizing the quality of food products and increase in awareness on the part of citizens can go a long way in containing adulteration.