FOOD ADULTERATION: Food adulteration includes adding harmful substances like toxic dye Metanil yellow to turmeric and pigeon pea (toor dal) food products, Malachite green (MG) and Green 3 dyes to shelled peas and greens, stone in grains, chalk powder in flour, papaya seeds in pepper. Another form of adulteration is the substitution of high-quality ingredients like ghee with cheaper alternatives, like Vanaspati, fish oil, lard (pig fat), and tallow or suet (beef fat) as happened recently with ghee supplied by three diaries for the Tirupati laddoos and in the infamous Jain Shudh Vanaspati case of 1983. Such adulterated ghee is sold in markets and used in hotels, restaurants, and sweets shops. Most eateries and packaged foods manufacturers use cheaper palmolein oil instead of the costlier but healthier vegetable oils. Worse, some street vendors use recycled engine oil for frying. Mislabelling or misleading consumers about food quality and contents is also adulteration.
FOOD CONTAMINATION: Contamination can happen during production, packing, storage, or transportation, such as pesticide and veterinary drug residues, heavy metals, faecal residues, and bird or rodent droppings. Cereals, tubers, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, eggs, meat, seafood, fruit juice, canned food, and protein powders can be contaminated. In October 2003, worms were found in Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolates in Mumbai. Cadbury redesigned the packaging and blamed poor storage at the retailers as the likely cause. In June 2015, Nestlé India destroyed approximately 38,000 tonnes of Maggi noodles due to safety concerns about lead and monosodium glutamate (MSG) contamination. Sharp pieces of glass, wood, rock, or metal contaminating food can choke or cause bleeding from internal injury. Heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury can contaminate food from various sources.
FOOD CHAIN CONTAMINATION BY MICROPLASTICS: Microplastics are minute particles of degraded discarded plastic that have become ubiquitous and affect wildlife and humans. They have been detected in air, drinking water, honey, salt, and numerous marine organisms. Animal studies have shown that plastic micro- and nanoparticles spread to all parts of the body and even the brain. They carry organic pollutants and heavy metals from small organisms at the bottom of the food chain. These can interfere with important biological processes in the human body and can cause disruption of the endocrine, and immune system; can inhibit mobility, reproduction, and development; and cause cancers. Single-use and disposable plastics should be replaced with nature-friendly alternatives to stop microplastic contamination.
FOOD POISONING: Food poisoning can be due to bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, or toxins often in contaminated water, raw or undercooked meat, seafood, eggs, and unpasteurized milk. The usual symptoms of food poisoning are an upset stomach with pain and cramps, diarrhoea, and vomiting. Dehydration, high fever, and toxins can cause severe illness and even death. Symptoms usually start within hours or several days of eating the food. Common pathogens contaminating food include E. coli, Clostridium botulinum, listeria, campylobacter, and salmonella. Decomposed or contaminated food items are often disguised in spicy curries. Vessels and dishes washed in contaminated water will contaminate the food served in and on them. You cannot see, smell, or taste the botulinum toxin, but even tasting the food containing it can be deadly. Botulism is a medical emergency. A 33-year-old woman died and 20 others suffered food poisoning after eating momos sold by a street vendor in Hyderabad in October last year. Over 50 individuals were hospitalized in Maharashtra’s Nanded district after consuming barnyard millet and peanut paste during a pilgrimage in Mahur a month ago. Aflatoxins from fungi found in moist peanuts, corn, and tree nuts cause liver cancer. Certain mushrooms and seafood are highly toxic. There have been many instances of mustard oil mixed with argemone seed toxins. Karanja oil and Jatropha oil (biodiesel) are other toxic oils. Toxic cyanide often has a bitter taste and can be found in almonds, bamboo shoots, cassava roots, lima beans, millet sprouts, spinach, and stone fruits like apples, peaches, apricots, pears, plums, and cherries. Certain bacteria, fungi, and algae can also produce it.
ALLERGENIC CONTAMINATION: Milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish (e.g., crab, lobster, shrimp), tree nuts (e.g., almonds, walnuts, pecans), peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame (gingelly or til) are the nine foods identified as major food allergens by the US food allergy laws. These laws require that food labels identify any ingredient or protein derived from any of these nine foods, for example: “lecithin (soy),” “flour (wheat),” and “whey (milk)”. Allergenic contamination occurs when any of these nine foods are processed with other foods in the same equipment or by the same handlers without adequate decontamination between changes. These foods when sold without warning can cause allergies like hives, abdominal cramps with vomiting and diarrhoea, face, tongue, and throat swelling with difficulty in breathing and loss of consciousness, and even life-threatening anaphylactic shock in an unsuspecting consumer allergic to these foods.
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Food safety requires quality checks for adulteration, contamination, toxins, pathogens, and allergens. Awareness and careful scrutiny by alert consumers is essential for food safety.
Dr. P.S.Venkatesh Rao is Consultant Endocrine, Breast & Laparoscopic Surgeon, Bengaluru.