In the earlier times, people used to prepare different eatables at home so that it is fresh, clean and healthy. But today everyone is so busy that they do not have time to cook food at home and rely on instantly made items.

Adulteration is a very serious problem posing serious health risks to many in India. In every product there is adulteration. Starting from our daily groceries, it moves  on to our life saving medicines. The sinners have not spared even infants’ milk products.

Food is one of the basic necessities for sustenance of life. Pure, fresh and healthy diet is most essential for the health of the people. It is no wonder to say community health is national wealth.

Among man’s everyday needs, food plays a major sustaining role. From the simple dish to the most elaborate haute cuisine, food preparation is as varied and rich as a man’s taste. The lure of riches and general apathy towards mankind has led to adulterants being added to food from the simple stones in rice to the more harmful brick and boric powder.  Harmful Effects of Food Adulteration Essay.

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER NOW

What is food adulteration? Food adulteration is an act of adding or mixing of poor quality, inferior, harmful, substandard, useless or unnecessary substances to food. This act of spoiling the nature and quality of food items is considered food adulteration.

Types of adulteration:  Food items, medicines, vegetables, paste, creams, products of famous brands and so on and so forth. May be because of this adulteration, people who consume such adulterated food suffer with upset stomach and other health related issues. I can say more than 20 per cent patients who visit a doctor or any clinic or any hospital are those who had consumed such adulterated food and food products.

Adulterated food is dangerous because it may be toxic and can affect health and it could deprive nutrients essential for proper growth and development of a human being.

The worst part is some adulterated food even causes cancer, the most life threatening disease. Also, in many cases which I have come across, many pregnant women who consumed such adulterated food ended up with miscarriages because of poor fetus growth and in some extreme cases the women died while delivering babies.

Food adulteration is one of the serious challenges in the Indian society. Despite various measures and penalties, the problem continues to remain a big challenge. The saddest part is those who engage in such dirty practice do not leave even infants’ milk products and life saving medicines.

Adulteration of food is a menace to the society and the perpetrators cannot be let off lightly.

After the arrival of  fast food concept and online order practices, the consumers really do not bother what type of food is being served to them. They totally forget the health aspect and only concentrate to get their order served at their doorsteps. Taking advantage of a consumer’s laziness, many restaurants and food joints which serve food do not bother to give importance to the quality aspect of the food but only want to satisfy their customers by serving them on time.

Why do companies engage in adulteration? Their one and only intention is that they want to increase their profit margin and want to earn big in a short time. Just to make more profit and money, risking other’s lives is absolutely an unethical practice. But they do not bother at all.

The central government, on its part, is trying everything possible to control this “crime”. In India, the ministry of health and family welfare is completely responsible for providing safe food to the citizens. The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954, has laid down guidelines to provide pure and wholesome foods to consumers. The Act was last amended in 1986 to make punishments more stringent and to empower consumers further. But the government is planning to enforce harsher punishment now.

The FSSAI has issued the draft amendments to the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, which was passed in 2006 but the regulations were notified only in 2011. Among the key amendments, the FSSAI has proposed to include a new section to crack down on food adulteration.

People need to be very cautious when they buy products from stores and malls. They should check for standards like ISI standard mark, Agmark for quality products, FSSAI standard mark, date of packing and date of expiry etc. If none of the prescribed standard marks is there, then they should totally avoid buying such products.

The government must focus on dealing strictly with those who engage in food adulteration. One way of doing this is by hiking the penalty, including making it analogous to attempt to murder in some extreme cases of adulteration.

These have different kinds of preservatives that are used to keep them in good condition for a long time. But these are really harmful and have an adverse effect on our health. Harmful Effects of Food Adulteration Essay. Today almost all the food items that you will get in the market have some or the other kind of adulterant which brings down the nutritional value and causes different types of health hazards.  Let’s know more about adulteration and how it is harmful to your health.

What is adulteration?

Adulteration is simply the way of changing the composition of any food item such that it loses the nutritional content. Every food item has certain nutrients which are healthy for the body but adulteration brings down this value and affects the quality to a large extent. This is the reason that people are getting more prone to health problems.

Adverse effects of adulteration on your health:  There is no denial to the fact that adulteration is definitely not good. It poses a number of health hazards which include health diseases, weaken the immune system and lots more. Here are some more harmful effects that you might not be aware of.

Leads to chronic health problems: There are many mineral oils which when added to the food items can result in paralysis, cancer etc. If pregnant women eat such food items it might lead to abortion or even damage the brain of the baby. Sometimes zinc substances result in vomiting or in severe cases it can result in diarrhea. Food colors that are added to the items can be the reason of liver damage, allergies and lots more. Thus you can say that adulteration can bring down your health and affect the quality of life.

Increases the impurity in the food: As adulteration alters the composition of the food item, it increases the impurities thus making them imperfect for the consumption. If you consume such impure stuff you are bound to have side effects which can either be short-term or a long-term one.

Lack of nutritional value: Ready-made food is made using poor quality ingredients which not only brings down the nutritional content but can have a change in taste as well if kept for a long time. So you compromise with the taste as well as your health.
Thus you can say that adulteration is definitely not good. There can be a number of reasons of adulteration like the wrong packaging, use of insecticides or pesticides on the food, use of preservatives and lots more. One can do nothing about it but just take measures and try to use quality products only for cooking. This will ensure healthy cooking and you will be able to stay away from various kinds of health problems. So avoid ready-made food but healthy food prepared at home. Harmful Effects of Food Adulteration Essay.