Chemistry Investigatory Project

By: Ratan Priyanshu

Class: 12
To: Mr. Karunesh Sir

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 Certificate

This is to certify that Ratan Priyanshu of class XII

has successfully completed his chemistry
investigatory project as prescribed by the CBSE
during the academic year 2019-2020 .

Teacher incharge

Internal examiner External examiner

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 Acknowledgement:

I would like to sincerely and profusely thank my

chemistry teacher Mr. Karunesh, PGT (Chemistry) and
our lab attendant, Mr. Jitendra for their able guidance
and support in completing my project.

I would also like to extend my gratitude to our school

management for providing me with all the facility that
was required.

Signature of the candidate

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 CONTENTS
1. Certificate

2. Acknowledgement

3. Objective

4. Introduction

5. Theory

6. Experimental Work

 Aim

 Apparatus required

 Procedure

 Observations

 Result & Precautions

 Conclusion

7. Bibliography

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 Objective
The Objective of this project is to study
some of the common food adulterants
present in different food stuffs.

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 Introduction
 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 that
community health is national wealth.

 Adulteration of food-stuffs was so rampant, widespread

and persistent that nothing short of a somewhat drastic
remedy in the form of a comprehensive legislation
became the need of the hour.

 To check this kind of anti-social evil a concerted and

determined onslaught was launched by the Government by
introduction of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Bill
in the Parliament to herald an era of much needed hope
and relief for the consumers at large.

 About the middle of the 19th cent. chemical and

microscopic knowledge had reached the stage that food
substances could be analyzed, and the subject of food
adulteration began to be studied from the standpoint of
the rights and welfare of the consumer.

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 Theory
 The increasing number of food producers and the
outstanding amount of import foodstuffs enables
the producers to mislead and cheat consumers.

 To differentiate those who take advantage of legal

rules from the ones who commit food adulteration
is very difficult. The consciousness of consumers
would be crucial. Ignorance and unfair market
behavior may endanger consumer health and
misleading can lead to poisoning.

 So we need simple screening tests for their

detection. In the past few decades, adulteration of
food has become one of the serious problems.
Consumption of adulterated food causes serious
diseases like cancer, diarrhea, asthma, ulcers, etc.
Majority of fats, oils and butter are paraffin wax,
castor oil and hydrocarbons. Red chilli powder is
mixed with brick powder and pepper is mixed with
dried papaya seeds.
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  These adulterants can be easily identified by simple
chemical tests.

 Several agencies have been set up by the

Government of India to remove adulterants from
food stuffs.

 AGMARK - acronym for agricultural marketing. This

organization certifies food products for their
quality. Its objective is to help farmers get better
and remunerative prices by grading of their
produce.

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EXPERIMENT - 01

Aim :
o To detect the presence of adulterants in fat,
oil and butter.

APPARATUS REQUIRED :
o Test-tube, acetic anhydride, conc. H2SO4,
acetic acid, conc. HNO3.

PROCEDURE :
Common adulterants present in ghee and oil are paraffin wax,
hydrocarbons, dyes and argemone oil. These are detected as
follows :

(i)Adulteration of paraffin wax and hydrocarbon in

vegetable ghee :

Heat small amount of vegetable ghee with acetic

anhydride. Droplets of oil floating on the surface of
unused acetic anhydride indicates the presence of
wax or hydrocarbons.

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 (ii)Adulteration of dyes in fat :

Heat 1mL of fat with a mixture of 1mL of conc.

sulphuric acid and 4mL of acetic acid. Appearance of
pink or red colour indicates presence of dye in fat.

(iii)Adulteration of argemone oil in edible oils:

Take small amount of oil in a test-tube, add few

drops of conc. HNO3 and shake. Appearance of red
colour in the acid layer indicates presence of
argemone oil.

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 EXPERIMENT - 02
AIM:
o To detect the presence of adulterants in sugar.

APPARATUS REQUIRED:
o Test-tubes, dil. HCl.

PROCEDURE:

Sugar is usually contaminated with washing soda and other

insoluble substances which are detected as follows:

(i)Adulteration of various insoluble substances in sugar:

Take small amount of sugar in a test-tube and shake

it with little water. Pure sugar dissolves in water but
insoluble impurities do not dissolve.

(ii)Adulteration of chalk powder, washing soda in sugar:

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 Take small amount of sugar in a test-tube, add few
drops of HCl. Brisk effervescence of CO2 shows the
presence of chalk powder or washing soda in the
given sample of sugar.

EXPERIMENT - 03
AIM :
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 o To detect the presence of adulterants in samples
of chilli powder, turmeric powder and pepper.

APPARATUS REQUIRED:
o Test-tubes, conc. HCl, dil. HNO3, KI solution.

PROCEDURE:
Common adulterants present in chilli powder, turmeric
powder and pepper are red coloured lead salts, yellow lead
salts and dried papaya seeds respectively. They are
detected as follows:

(i)Adulteration of red lead salts in chilli powder:

To a sample of chilli powder, add dil. HNO3. Filter

the dil. solution and add 2 drops of potassium iodide
solution to the filtrate. Yellow ppt. indicates the
presence of lead salts in chilli powder.

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 (ii)Adulteration of yellow lead salts to turmeric powder:

To a sample of turmeric powder add conc. HCl.

Appearance of magenta colour shows the presence
of yellow oxides of lead in turmeric powder.

(iii)Adulteration of brick powder in red chilli powder:

Add small amount of given red chilli powder in

beaker containing water. Brick powder settles at the
bottom while pure chilli powder floats over water.

(iv)Adulteration of dried papaya seeds in pepper:

Add small amount of sample of pepper to a beaker

containing water and stir with a glass rod. Dried
papaya seeds being lighter float over water while
pure pepper settles at the bottom.

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 OBSERVATION :
EXPT. EXPERIMENT PROCEDURE OBSERVATION
NO.
1. Adulteration of Heat small amount of Appearance of
paraffin wax and vegetable ghee with oil floating on
hydrocarbon in acetic anhydride. the surface.
vegetable ghee. Droplets of oil floating
on the surface of
unused acetic anhydride
indicate the presence of
wax or hydrocarbon.
2. Adulteration of Heat 1mL of fat with a Appearance of
dyes in fat mixture of 1mL of conc. pink colour.
H2SO4 and 4mL of
acetic acid.
3. Adulteration of To small amount of oil in No red colour
argemone oil in a test tube, add few observed
edible oils drops of conc. HNO3 &
shake.
4. Adulteration of Take small amount of Pure sugar
various insoluble sugar in a test tube and dissolves in
substances in shake it with little water but
sugar water. insoluble
impurities do
not dissolve.

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 5. Adulteration of To small amount of No brisk
chalk powder, sugar in a test tube, add effervescence
washing soda in a few drops of dil. HCl observed.
sugar
6. Adulteration of To sample of turmeric Appearance of
yellow lead salts to powder, add conc. HCl. magenta
turmeric powder colour
7. Adulteration of To a sample of chilli No yellow
red lead salts in powder, add dil. HNO3. precipitate.
chilli powder. Filter the solution and
add 2 drops of KI
solution to the filtrate.
8. Adulteration of Add small amount of Brick powder
brick powder in given red chilli powder in
settles at the
chilli powder a beaker containing bottom while
water. pure chilli
powder floats
over water.
9. Adulteration of Add small amount of Dried papaya
dried papaya seeds sample of pepper to seeds being
in pepper beaker containing water lighter float
and stir with a glass rod. over water
while pure
pepper settles
at the
bottom.

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 Result:
The required analyses for adulterants in food
stuffs has been made.

Precautions:
By taking a few precautions, we can escape from
consuming adulterated products.

1. Take only packed items of well-known companies.

2.Buy items from reliable retail shops and recognized

outlets.

3. Check the ISI mark or Agmark.

4. Buy products of only air tight popular brands.

5. Avoid craziness for artificially coloured sweets and

buy only from reputed shops.

6. Do not buys sweets or snacks kept in open.

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 7. Avoid buying things from street side vendors.

CONCLUSION:
Selection of wholesome and non-adulterated food is essential
for daily life to make sure that such foods do not cause any
health hazard. It is not possible to ensure wholesome food
only on visual examination when the toxic contaminants are
present in ppm level. However, visual examination of the food
before purchase makes sure to ensure absence of insects,
visual fungus, foreign matters, etc. Therefore, due care
taken by the consumer at the time of purchase of food after
thoroughly examining can be of great help. Secondly, label
declaration on packed food is very important for knowing the
ingredients and nutritional value. It also helps in checking the
freshness of the food and the period of best before use. The
consumer should avoid taking food from an unhygienic place
and food being prepared under unhygienic conditions. Such
types of food may cause various diseases. Consumption of cut
fruits being sold in unhygienic conditions should be avoided.
It is always better to buy certified food from reputed shops.

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 Bibliography
1. Website
 www.wikipedia.org

 www.google.com

 www.scribd.com

2. BOOKS:

 Comprehensive Practical Manual

 NCERT Class XII

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