Food Science and Technology

Food Adulteration

Food Adulteration refers to the process by which the quality or the nature of a given food is reduced through expansion of adulterants or removal of vital substance. Food adulterants belong to the foreign and usually inferior chemical substance present in food that causes harm or is unwanted in the food. Adulteration of food commonly defined as “the addition or subtraction of any substance to or from food, so that the natural composition and quality of food substance is affected". Adulteration is either intentional by either removing substances to food or altering the existing natural properties of food knowingly. Unintentional adulteration is usually attributed to ignorance’s, carelessness or lack of facilities for maintaining food quality. Incidental contamination during the period of growth, harvesting, storage, processing, transport and distribution of foods are also considered.

Adulteration is a term which implies that a food product fails to meet the legal standards. An example of adulteration is an addition of other substance to a food item in order to increase the quantity of the food item in raw form to prepared form, which may lead to the loss of actual quality of food item.