Chemistry Investigatory

Project on Food Adulteration

By: Kinjal Dutta

Class: XII sci B

To: Mr. Arindam
Chakraborty

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Certificate page
This is to certify that Kinjal Dutta of class
XII Sci B has satisfactorily completed his
chemistry investigatory project under the
guidance of Arindam Chakraborty as
prescribed by the CBSE leading to the
award of annual examination of the year.

Teacher in charge

Internal examiner

External
examiner

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 Acknowledgement:
I would like to sincerely and profusely thank
my chemistry teacher Mr Arindam
Chakraborty, PGT (Chemistry) and our lab
attendant for their able guidance and support
in completing my project.
I would also like to extend my gratitude to the
principal Mr. Sanjay Dubey 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.

Introduction
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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
microscopically 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,
diarrhoea, 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 promote the Grading and
Standardization of agricultural and allied commode.

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

APPARATUS REQUIRED :
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 :

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(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.

(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

To 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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AIM:
To detect the presence of adulterants in sugar.

APPARATUS REQUIRED:
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.To 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.
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AIM :
To detect the presence of adulterants in samples of
chilli powder, turmeric powder and pepper.

APPARATUS REQUIRED:
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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EXPT. NO. EXPERIMENT PROCEDURE OBSERVATION

OBSERVATION :

1. Adulteratio n Heat small Appearance of

of paraffin amount of oil floating on
wax and vegetable ghee the surface.
hydrocarbo n with acetic
in vegetable anhydride.
ghee. Droplets of oil
floating on the
surface of
unused acetic
anhydride
indicate the
presence of
wax or
hydrocarbo
n.

2. Adulteratio n Heat 1mL of Appearance of

of dyes in fat fat with a pink colour.
mixture of
1mL of

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 conc. H2SO4
and 4mL of
acetic acid.

3. Adulteratio n To small No red

of argemone amount of oil colour
oil in edible in a test tube, observed
oils add few

drops of conc.
HNO3
& shake.

4. Adulteratio n Take small Pure sugar

of various amount of dissolves in
insoluble sugar in a test water but
substances in tube and insoluble
sugar shake it with impurities do
little not
water. dissolve.

5. Adulteratio n To small No brisk

of chalk amount of effervescen ce
powder, sugar in a test observed.
washing soda tube, add a
in few
sugar drops of dil.

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 HCl
6. Adulteratio n of To sample of Appearance of
yellow lead turmeric magenta colour
salts to powder, add
turmeric conc.
powder HCl.

7. Adulteratio n To a sample of No yellow

of red lead chilli powder, precipitate.
salts in chilli add dil.
powder. HNO3. Filter
the solution
and add 2
drops of KI
solution to
the filtrate.

8. Adulteratio n Add small Brick powder

of brick amount of settles at the
powder in given red chilli bottom while
chilli powder powder in a pure chilli
beaker powder floats
containing over
water water.

9. Adulteratio Add small Dried

n of dried amount of papaya

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 papaya sample of seeds being
seeds in pepper to lighter float
pepper beaker over water
containing while pure
water and pepper
stir with a settles at
glass rod. the bottom.

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.

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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.
7. Avoid buying things from street side vendors.

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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

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always better to buy certified food from reputed
shops.

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 Biblography
1. Website
 www.wikipedia.org

 www.google.com

 www.yahoo.com

2. BOOKS:

 Comprehensive Practical Manual

 NCERT Class XII

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