Food Adulteration: A Growing Concern for Public Health & Evaluation of Food Adulteration by Analytical Technique

In this article, we will discuss something very important food adulteration. Adulteration of food has always been a problem, more in developing countries, where regulatory agencies are not very active. But food fraud and contamination has also been reported in developed countries, revealing the worldwide aspect of the issue. Food adulterants are added in many ways such as artificial Flavors, dirty water, chemical treatment for artificial ripening, etc. Adulterated food can cause mild digestive disorders as well as life threatening conditions such as kidney failure, neurotoxicity and reproductive toxicity. This review article describes broadly the various types of adulteration with potential health hazards, and recent advances in the detection and prevention of food adulteration. For daily activity, all living things require food as one of their basic needs. For nourishment or enjoyment, animals, including humans, can eat or drink food that comprises a range of vital minerals and nutrients, including proteins, lipids, water, and carbs. The type of food people eats and how nutritious it is in terms of nutrients ultimately determines their productivity and overall health. The world offers a vast array of foods derived from both plant and animal sources. Humans and other living things depend on food to sustain their existence. In many developing nations, including China, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and others, food adulteration is a major problem. Food adulteration defrauds the customer. The act of adulterating food poses a serious risk to one's health. Approximately 57% of individuals worldwide have had health issues as a result of consuming tainted and adulterated food. According to estimates, roughly 22%. Food is defined as an edible material derived from either plants or animals that includes vital nutrients including proteins, lipids, carbs, minerals, and vitamins. All living things need food for growth and upkeep   Although proper nutrition is vital for good health, the positive impacts of contaminated food are lessened.2 Low-quality diets are linked to increased risk for a number of morbidities and deaths, including cancer, type II diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. For example, consuming glutamate-containing foods raises a person's blood glucose levels. Some contaminated foods can also have a direct impact on our internal organs, causing problems with the heart, kidneys, liver, and many other organs. Presently, consumer is very aware about the health and hence, he demands the food Consumers need food that provides both safety protection and wholesome health benefits while maintaining high levels of hygiene. Food adulteration occurs annually at alarming rates. The quality of various foods has been a great Many countries face significant challenges in ensuring the quality of their food supplies. Many types of adulterants are added in foods. These adulterants have hazardous the contamination of foods causes negative impacts on human wellness. Milk is most commonly adulterated with unhygienic water and ingestion of such milk can result many diseases in the consumer. Sincere attempts should be made to create awareness among the consumers about the health problems due to adulterated foods. Despite these laws, food adulteration has proliferated and it has become more challenging to identify these adulterants, primarily due to the advanced techniques utilized in the adulteration process. Food adulteration is primarily caused by an imbalance between consumer income and food prices. When food manufacturing costs are more than what the buyer is willing to pay, for example, the seller is compelled to offer a lower-quality food item. Adulteration is among the most significant and difficult issues of our day. The law is not applied as intended, and it is difficult to apprehend offenders because of their cooperation with government officials. Additionally, food adulteration is a general concern for industries, government organizations, food processors, consumers, and regulatory bodies.

Types of Food Adulteration

1.Intentional Adulteration

Synthetic additives and chemical adulterants: Artificial colorants, preservatives and ripening agents like calcium carbide. Economically motivated adulteration: Adulteration with cheap substances such as chalk powder in flour or detergent in milk.

2.Incidental Adulteration

Residue of pesticide in vegetable and cereals. Industrial waste or use of low-quality packaging materials leading to heavy metal contamination.

3.Natural Adulteration

Dairy and meat products contaminated by bacterial pollution and fungal toxins. Toxic weeds in grains and pulses.

Food Adulterants of Common Foods and Their Effects.

Table 1 Health effects and type of adulterants

4.Detection Methods of Food Adulteration

1.Laboratory-Based Techniques

• Chromatography (HPLC, GC-MS): Used to identify synthetic additives and contaminants.¹¹
• Spectroscopy (UV-VIS, FTIR, NMR): Used for assessing the purity and composition of food.¹²
• Microbiological Analysis of Dairy and Meat: To detect bacterial contamination.¹⁷

2.Household Detection Tests

• Test for milk adulteration: => Add iodine to check starch.
• Turmeric adulteration test: Making sure that yellow dye is present or not by adding hydrochloric acid
• Test for adulteration of honey: the water test.

5.Analytical methods

Food authenticity testing has become more common due to statutory safeguards for regional foods; it serves as a quality standard for foodstuffs and ingredients. At this point in time, the requirement for accurate, standardized food authentication techniques becomes critical. The last ten years have seen the development of a number of analytical techniques, such as gas chromatography (GC) with MS coupling and liquid chromatography (LC), due to the need for quick screening and selective confirmation of food quality and authenticity. In addition to many other food items, milk and edible extra virgin olive oils are subjected to qualitative and quantitative food analyses using chemometric methods in conjunction with analytical techniques. There are some examples of Food samples and their possible analytical technique to detect the adulteration

1. Milk: Milk is very valuable food, readily digested and absorbed. It consists of nutrients, which are needed for proper growth and maintenance of body maintain proper hygienic conditions during this transport, which leads to increase the total viable bacterial count. The milk is generally adulterated to increase their profit margin by adding several chemicals like urea, starch, flour, cane sugar, vegetable oils, detergents etc. Various preservatives like formalin and some antibiotics are also added in milk to increase its shelf life. Flour and starch of maize, rice and potato can be used as stabilizers and anti-caking agents for surface treatment of sliced and shredded products. In fresh cheese, the use of starches and flours in the production process is authorized in doses as functionally necessary (FAO, 2001). The maximum concentration of starch or stabilizer/ anti-caking agents present in the fresh cheese is 5 g kg⁻¹ (FAO/OMS, 2000)   For sample analysis, researchers employ a reversed-phase HPLC approach. The amount of melamine in UHT, pasteurized milk, and powdered baby cereal, fruit yogurt, soft bananas, and newborn formula. They also utilize milk powder and cheese. Melamine may be detected in milk using the method's LOD and LOQ. When milk fat (MF) is tested for adulteration with oils and fats from other animals, GC (GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY) can be used to identify the fat and determine its source. Different proportions of animal fats and vegetable oils were used to adulterate a mix that contained 100% MF.GC was used to measure cholesterol levels, TG contents, and profiles.

2. Wheat flour L-Cysteine is an amino acid generally added to Wheat Flour for baking purposes. Disulfide bonds can be broken by cysteine, improving the interaction of other proteins. The dough is really easy to stretch. To put it another way, L-cysteine weakens the gluten in the dough. As a result, the addition of cysteine to the flour enhances its flow. The flour is supported in their relaxation by resting. In accordance literature, the Turkish Food Codex's regulation on food additives, which made use of
It is prohibited to use L-cysteine (E 920) in wheat flour. The primary sources of L-cysteine from both humans and animals are hair, wool, and feathers; examples are human hair, pig bristles, cow horns, and duck feathers. The acid hydrolysis technique is mostly used to separate L-Cysteine from human hair by dissolving it in acid.According to research, L-cysteine is frequently found in wheat flour and it can easily determine by Raman microscopy with the chemometrics of Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Common wheat is used to make bread, biscuits, and other leavened goods, whereas T. durum Desf. (durum wheat) is used to make dried pasta and semolina. PCR-related methods can be used to identify prevalent adulteration in wheat.

3. Spices UV-visible spectroscopic and a PLS-DA chemometric treatment is used to     check the adulteration in Paprika with Sudan I and Sudan II dyes. By computing the primary performance metrics (specificity and sensitivity) and assessing the stability over time, the approach was validated.

4. Beef The European meat adulteration crisis has gained a media attention; in meat business the use of horsemeat Consider it as an adulterant. In a crisis investigating the possibility of finding horse DNA traces in frozen beef burgers. The public first became aware of beef adulterant on January 15, 2013. Sometimes beef is replaced with horsemeat Because it makes rearing kids less expensive. Raman Spectroscopy method is used to used adulteration in beef by Principal component analysis.

5.Honey This novel HPLC technique for detecting honey adulteration was also used in an authenticity check. The suggested HPLC method was straightforward, inexpensive, and simple for government departments to use for quality monitoring of honey products. HPLC was used to test genuine honey and HFS made from rice. Chromatograms from both samples were comparable, with the exception that when the retention period was 15.25 minutes, a little peak appeared in the syrup but not in the honey. For this peak, several samples from various producers and starch sources (corn, rice, and cassava) were analyzed because it could be a sign of adulteration. Every sample peaked at the same moment, which was 15.25 minutes. For the detection of honey adulteration with high fructose inulin syrups (HFIS), a GC–MS technique has been devised.

6.Coffee According to the ICO, the International Coffee Organization, approximately 128 billion. That year, almost 148 million bags of coffee were produced, and about that much coffee was consumed worldwide. About 151.3 million bags, each holding 60 kg of coffee, were traded in 2017 (ICO, 2017). There are
The two primary commercially valuable coffee kinds are Arabica and Robusta. Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) as a rapid and accurate way to identify and quantify this kind of adulteration was the study's focus. It is clear that the method can identify coffee adulteration and verify the product's legitimacy because LIBS and Partial Least Squares (PLS) are utilized.
In order to focus on the target and cause it to produce a very tiny plasma, LIBS requires a laser. This plasma's light contains information about the sample's chemical components. The components of coffee may be readily investigated using the light in LIBS.

7.Butter The authentication of milk fat includes analysis of components, especially triacylglycerols, fatty acids, sterols and tocopherols. Fatty acid and sterol composition was analysed by using GC-MS. TAG(Triglycerides) & tocopherol profiles were examined by HPLC with diode array (DAD) and fluorescence detectors (FLDs). In addition, identification of selected   of butter fat was conducted by LC-atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation (APCI)/MS technique.

5.1 Analytical Techniques to detect the foods Adluteration

Table 2: Food adulteration and analytical techniques