Kanpur: In an effort to help consumers identify adulterated food at home, the Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) on Friday organised a live demonstration at Moti Jheel, showcasing simple tests to detect adulteration in commonly consumed food items.During the awareness programme, officials demonstrated easy methods to check whether milk contains detergent, turmeric and red chilli powder contain artificial colours, black pepper is adulterated with papaya seeds, and silver leaf contains aluminium.Department officials said that detecting basic-level food adulteration is no longer confined to laboratories, as consumers can conduct several simple tests at home to identify suspected adulteration in food products.DM Jitendra Pratap Singh was present during the programme and witnessed the live demonstrations. The initiative aimed to make consumers more aware and enable them to take basic precautions against adulterated food products.During the demonstration, Assistant Commissioner (Food) Sanjay Pratap Singh, Chief Food Safety Officer Dharmendra Dwivedi, Food Safety Officers Anil Kumar, Narendra Sharma, Brijmohan Gupta and Upasana Shah, along with the analyst deployed at the mobile laboratory, were present.Experts demonstrated simple tests to detect common adulteration in milk and milk products, spices, edible oils, honey, tea leaves, flour, jaggery, sugar and other food items. On-the-spot demonstrations were conducted to identify various types of adulteration, including detergent and starch in milk, starch in ghee, artificial colours in turmeric and red chilli powder, papaya seeds in black pepper, and aluminium in silver leaf.Officials clarified that these tests were meant only for preliminary detection. Final confirmation of any suspected sample would be made only after scientific examination at the departmental laboratory. They also distributed a booklet explaining how to identify adulterated food items.The District Magistrate said that an aware consumer is the most effective weapon against adulteration. He added that through the ‘Food Safety on Wheels’ initiative, people are being taught simple tests that allow them to carry out preliminary checks on food items themselves.“Awareness is the best defence against adulteration,” he said. He urged people to purchase food items only from clean and reliable establishments, pay attention to the quality of food products, and immediately inform the Food Safety Department about any instance of serious adulteration.
