CHEMISTRY

PROJECT
2010-
2011

A.I.S.S.C.E

PUNIT MUKHERJEE
 CLASS: XII
BODHICARYA SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL

INTRODUCTION
In the past few decades, adulteration of food has become one of the serious problems.
Consumption of adulterated food causes disease like diarrhea, asthma, ulcers etc.
"Adulteration" is a legal term meaning that a food product fails to meet federal or
state standards. Adulteration usually refers to noncompliance with health or safety
standards as determined, in the Union of India, by the Food Development Authority (FDA).
Food is considered "adulterated" if it meets any one of the following criteria:
1) It bears or contains any "poisonous or deleterious substance" which may
render it injurious to health;
2) It bears or contains any added poisonous or added deleterious substance
(other than a pesticide residue, food additive, color additive, or new animal
drug, which is covered by separate provisions) that is unsafe;
3) Its container is composed, in whole or in part, of any poisonous or
deleterious substance which may render the contents injurious to health; or
4) It bears or contains a pesticide chemical residue that is unsafe
5) It is, or it bears or contains, an unsafe food additive;
6) It is, or it bears or contains, an unsafe new animal drug;
7) It is, or it bears or contains, an unsafe color additive;
8) It consists, in whole or in part, of "any filthy, putrid, or decomposed
substance" or is otherwise unfit for food; or
9) It has been prepared, packed, or held under unsanitary conditions.
10) It has been irradiated and the irradiation processing was not done in
conformity with a regulation permitting irradiation of the food in question.
11) It contains a dietary ingredient that presents a significant or unreasonable
risk of illness or injury under the conditions of use recommended in labeling.
12) A valuable constituent has been omitted in whole or in part or replaced with
another substance.

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 These adulterants can be easily identified by simple chemical tests.

EXPERIMENT 1
AIM : TO TEST THE PRESENCE OF VANASPATI GHEE AND STARCHY MATTER IN GIVEN SAMPLE OF
PURE GHEE OR BUTTER.

THEORY: Starchy matter can be detected with iodine. Iodine forms a colored complex with
starch. Vanaspati Ghee gives color with furfural.

APPARATUS: Test tubes, Test Tube Stand, test Tube holder.

CHEMICALS: Iodine or tincture of Iodine Solution, Hydrochloric acid, sugar, given sample of
ghee or butter.

PROCEDURE:

1. Detection of Starchy Matter.

EXPERIMENT OBSERVATION INFERENCE

To 0.5 ml of sample taken in No noticeable change in the Starchy matter is absent in
test tube, 1 ml of water is color of the solution. sample.
added and the solution is
boiled. After cooling the
solution a drop of Iodine is
added to it.

2. Detection of Vanaspati Ghee.

EXPERIMENT OBSERVATION INFERENCE

To 0.5 ml of sample taken in No noticeable change in the Vanaspati is absent in
test tube, 1 ml of water is color of the solution. sample.
added and the solution is
boiled. After cooling the

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 solution a drop of Iodine is
added to it.

EXPERIMENT 2
AIM : TO TEST THE PURITY OF GIVEN OIL/FAT.

THEORY: Oil/fats are mostly adulterated with:

1. Dyes to improve color of material.
2. Paraffin wax of hydrocarbons to increase the weight of product.
3. Cheap varieties of similar materials, e.g mustard oil are adulterated with
Argemone oils.

APPARATUS: Test tubes, Test Tube Stand, test Tube holder.

CHEMICALS: HCL acid, Nitric Acid, Sulphuric acid, Glacial acetic acid, sample.

PROCEDURE:
1. Detection of Dye in fat.
EXPERIMENT OBSERVATION INFERENCE
To 1 ml of sample taken in a No noticeable change in the Any kind of dye is absent in
test tube, a mixture of Conc. color of the solution. sample.
H2SO4 & Glacial acetic acid
(1:4) is added followed by
boiling.

2. Detection of Argemone oil.

EXPERIMENT OBSERVATION INFERENCE
To 5ml of sample taken in a Orange Color appears. Argemone is present.
test tube few drops of Conc.
HNO3 is added followed by
soft shaking of the test tube.

3. Detection of Mineral Oil

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 EXPERIMENT OBSERVATION INFERENCE
To 2 ml of sample taken in No observable change occurs. Mineral oil is absent in the
test tube, equal amount of given sample.
Conc. HNO3 is added and the
solution is heated in water
bath.

EXPERIMENT 3
AIM : TO TEST THE PRESENCE OF ADULTERANT IN GIVEN SAMPLE OF SUGAR.

THEORY: Common adulterants of sugar are washing soda, chalk powder. Sugar being
soluble in water, any residues left after sugar is dissolved in water indicates the
presence of adulterants. Washing soda and chalk powder both give effervescence
when mixed with HCL.

APPARATUS: Test tubes, Test Tube Stand, test Tube holder.

CHEMICALS: Hydrochloric Acid, distilled water, sample of sugar.

PROCEDURE:

2. Detection of presence of adulterants in sugar.

EXPERIMENT OBSERVATION INFERENCE

To 1 gm of sample taken in No residue is left in the No adulterants present.
test tube, 5 ml of water is solution.
added and the solution is
shaken vigorously for 5 mins.

3. Detection chalk/washing soda in sugar.

EXPERIMENT OBSERVATION INFERENCE

To 1 gm of sugar, taken in a No effervescence. Absence of Chalk and baking
clean, dry test tube, 2 drops soda in sugar is confirmed.
od HCL acid is dropped.

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 EXPERIMENT 4
AIM : TO FIND OUT THE POSSIBILTY OF ADULTERATION IN GIVEN SAMPLE OF CHILLI POWDER.

THEORY: The powder is adulterated with other colors or brick powder. Brick powder being
heavier than Chilli powder and water settles in the bottom in a glass of water.

APPARATUS: Glass rod and Glass Beaker.

CHEMICALS: Sample and Water.

PROCEDURE:

1. Detection of presence of Brick dust in Chilli Powder.

EXPERIMENT OBSERVATION INFERENCE

To a beaker of water the Red color substance settles in Brick powder is present in the
sample is added and stirred the bottom of the glass given sample.
with the glass rod and the beaker.
solution is left alone for 5
mins to settle.

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 EXPERIMENT 5
AIM : FIND OUT THE POSSIBILTY OF ADULTERATION IN GIVEN SAMPLE OF TURMERIC POWDER

THEORY: Yellow Chalk Powder is a common adulterant of powdered turmeric. Chalk gives
effervescence with dil. HCL acid.

APPARATUS: Test tubes, Test Tube Stand, test Tube holder.

CHEMICALS: Diluted Hydrochloric Acid, distilled water, sample.

PROCEDURE:

3. Detection of presence of Chalk in Turmeric powder.

EXPERIMENT OBSERVATION INFERENCE

To 1 gm of sample taken in No noticeable change occurs. No adulterants present.
test tube, 1 ml of dil HCL is
added.

4. Detection Adulterants.

EXPERIMENT OBSERVATION INFERENCE

To 1 gm of turmeric powder,
taken in a clean, dry test
tube, 2 drops od HCL acid is
dropped.
And 25-30 ml of water is
added.
Violet color formed when Sample is Pure.
HCL is added.
Violet color vanishes on
diluting the solution.

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 COMMON TESTS THAT CAN BE
DONE AT HOME:
Food
Adulterant Simple Method for Detecting the Adulterant
Article
Water Put a drop of milk on polished vertical surface. The drop of pure milk
either stops or flows slowly leaving a white trail behind it. Whereas
  milk adulterated with water will flow immediately without leaving a
mark.
Milk
 Urea Take 5 ml of milk in a test tube and add 2 drops of bromothymol blue
soln. Development of blue colour after 10 minutes indicates presence
  of urea.
Mustard Argemone seeds have rough surface and mustard seeds on pressing is
Argemone Seeds
Seeds yellow inside while argemone seed is white.
Put some lemon juice, bubbles are observed on the presence of
Ice Cream Washing Powder
washing powder
On ignition genuine silver foil burns away completely leaving
Silver Foil Aluminium Foil glistening white spherical ball of the same mass while aluminum foil is
reduced to ashes of black Grey colour.
A cotton wick dipped in pure honey burns when ignited with a match
Honey Water stick. If adulterated presence of water will not allow the honey to burn,
if it does will produce a cracking sound.
Gently sprinkle the coffee powder on surface of water in a glass.  The
coffee floats over the water but chicory begins to sink down within few
Coffee Chicory
seconds.  The falling chicory powder particles leave behind them a trail
of colour, due to large amount of caramel they contain
Coloured leaves Rub leaves on white paper, artificial colour comes out on paper.

Tea leaves sprinkled on wet filter paper. Pink or red spots on paper
Tea  Used tea
show colour

 Iron fillings Move a magnet through the sample. Iron will stick to the magnet.
Float the sample in alcohol. The mature black pepper berries sink
Black Pepper Papaya Seeds
while papaya seeds and light black pepper float.

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 Soap Stone or Shake a little portion of sample with water and allow to settle. Soap
Hing
earthy matter stone or earthy matter will settle down at the bottom.
Coloured dried Pure saffron will not break easily like artificial. Pure saffron when
Saffron tendrils of maize allowed to dissolved in water will continue to give its colour so long as
cob it lasts.

CONCLUSION
From the above experiments it is very clear that adulteration of food has always been and
will always be a serious threat to us.

Food Adulteration occur in rural as well as urban areas. So the first option is to buy
branded and ISI-marked products. Even if these branded items cost a little extra, it is
worth paying the extra amount to safe guard your health. 
If you have purchased any branded item and doubt its quality, you can at least approach
the company concerned. Always remember to preserve your grocery bills so that the
company can take necessary steps regarding the complaint

If any person manufactures for sale, stores, sell imports or distributes any article of food
which is adulterated or misbranded, he is liable under the PFA Act to be punished with
imprisonment and fined.  If you find that any food is adulterated, then do not keep silent.
Complain to Prevention of Food Adulteration Department in your city / town / district
and report to the newspapers and make more and more people aware to take joint
action.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is my privilege to express my gratitude towards our respected Chemistry Teacher, Mrs. As
she has been guidance throughout, without whom, this project would not have been
possible. She chose a very interesting topic and explained it amazingly well. I would be doing
great injustice if I forget to give our Laboratory in charge his due respect and
acknowledgement as it was his constant help, arrangement and guidance that helped as to
really perform the tests and experiments.

I would also like to use this opportunity to thank our Vice-Principal, for granting us all the
facilities and extending as much of help as possible so that we could finish our project.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY
To carry out this project and to make sure all the details provided in this project is correct I
have taken the freedom to take information from the following sources:-

Books:
1. NCERT Chemistry for Class XII
2. TMH Chemistry.

Websites:
1. www.wikipedia.com
2. http://www.enotes.com/food-encyclopedia/adulteration-food
3. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/food_adulteration.aspx

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