KENDRIYA VIDYALAYA

PACHMARHI

CHEMISTRY
INVESTIGATORY
PROJECT

TOPIC- STUDY OF COMMON FOOD

ADULTRANTS

SUBMITTED BY: VISHESH BHARDWAJ

SUBMITED TO: Mr. LAL CHAND KUMAWAT
 CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that

Master Vishesh Bhardwaj Roll No. 19632287

Of class XII of institution Kendriya Vidyalaya Pachmarhi

has
successfully completed his project report in chemistry on the
topic

‘STUDY OF COMMON FOOD

ADULTURANTS…’
for the partial fulfilment of AISSCE as prescribed by the
CBSE in the year 2022-2023

Principal

Internal Examinor
Mr. L.C.Kumawat External Examinor

:: ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ::
 I sincerely thank our chemistry teacher Mr. Lal Chand
Kumawat for his guidance, encouragement and support
throughout the duration of project. Without his motivation and
help the successful completion of this project would not have
been possible.

I would also like to extend my gratitude to the entire chemistry

department of Kendriya Vidyalaya Pachmarhi for their
constant support.

Vishesh Bhardwaj
XII A

:: CONTENTS ::

1. Certificate
2. Acknowledgement
3. Objective
4. Introduction
5. Theory
6. Experimental Work
 Experiments
 Aim
 Apparatus
 Required Procedure
 Observations
 Results
 Precautions
7. Conclusion
8. Bibliography
:: OBJECTIVE ::
The objective of this project is to study some of the common food
adulterants present in various food items.
 :: INTRODUCTION ::
Adulteration or contamination of natural food products is one of the major
challenges in today’s society. Despite various actions and
penalties, the practice of adding adulterant is quite common in developing
countries. There are various methods used for adulterating natural products.
Food Adulteration can be defined as the practice of adulterating food or
contamination of food materials by adding a few substances, which
are collectively called adulterants. The process of contaminating food or adding to
the food components is a common phenomenon in developing countries. For
instance: Milk can be diluted by adding water to increase its quantity and
starch powder is often added to increase its solid content.
Listed below are the main reasons for adulterating food products:
 Practised as a part of the business strategy.
 An imitation of some other food substance.
 Lack of knowledge of proper food consumption.
 To increase the quantity of food production and sales.
 Increased food demand for a rapidly growing population.
 To make maximum profit from food items by fewer investments.

:: THEORY ::
Adulteration is an illegal practice of adding raw and other cheaper ingredients to excellent
quality products to increase the quantity. Having this adulterated food is highly toxic and
leads to several health issues, including certain nutrition deficiency diseases, kidney
disorders, and failure of an individual’s organ systems, including heart, kidney and liver.

Below is a list of some adulterants added to different food items and their effects:

Sr. Adulterants Foods Commonly Used Diseases or Health

No Effects
1. Argemone Seeds Mustard Seeds Edible Epidemic Dropsy
Argemone Oil Oils and Fats Glaucoma Cardiac
arrest

2. Artificially coloured foreign As a substitute for Injurious to health

seeds cumin seed, Poppy seed,
black pepper
3. Foreign leaves or exhausted tea Tea Injurious to health,
leaves, saw dust artificially cancer
coloured
4. TCP Oils Paralysis
5. Rancid Oil Oils Destroys Vitamin A
 and E
6. Sand, marble chips, stones, filth Food grains, pulses etc. Damage digestive
tract
7. Lathyrus Sativus Khesari dal alone or Lathyrism (crippling
mixed in other pulses spastic paraplegia)
8. Mineral Oil (white oil, petroleum Edible oils and fats, Cancer
fractions) Black pepper
9. Leadchromate Turmeric whole and Anemia, abortion,
powdered, mixed spices paralysis, brain
damage
10. Methanol Alcoholic liquors Blurred vision,
blindness, death

11. Arsenic Fruits such as apples, Dizziness, chills,

sprayed over with lead cramps, paralysis,,
arsenate death

12. Barium Foods contaminated by Violent peristalisis,

rat poisons arterial
(Bariumcarbonate) hypertension,
muscular twitching,
convulsions, cardiac
disturbances
13. Cadmium Fruits juices, soft drinks ‘Itai – itai (ouch –
etc. in contact with ouch) disease,
cadmium plated vessels increased salivation,
or equipment. Cadmium acute gastritis, liver
contaminated water and and kidney damage,
shell – fish. prostate cancer
14. Cobalt Water, Liquors Cardiac
insufficiency and
mycocardial failure
15. Lead Water, natural and Lead poisoning
processed food (foot – drop,
insomnia, anemia,
constipation, mental
retardation, brain
damage)
16. Copper Food Vomiting, diarrhoea
17. Tin Food Colic, vomiting
18. Zinc Food Colic, vomiting
19. Mercury Mercury fungicide Brain damage,
treated seeds grains or paralysis, death
mercury contaminated
fish
20. Bacillus cereus Cereal products, Food infection
custards, puddings, (nausea, vomiting,
sauces abdominal pain,
diarrhoea)
Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) has been
created for laying down science-based standards for articles of food.
and to control their manufacture, storage, allotment, sale and
import to make sure availability of safe and decent food for
human expenditure. All entities involved in the manufacturing,
storing, transportation or selling of food products are required
to obtain
FSSAI Registration and comply with FSSAI regulations.

:: EXPERIMENTS ::
EXPERIMENT 1 :-
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:
(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. 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.

EXPERIMENT 2 :-
AIM:
To detect the presence of adulterants in sugar.

APPARATUS REQUIRED:
Test-tubes, dil. HCl.

PROCEDURE:
Sugars 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. Take small
amount of sugar in a test-tube, add few drops of HCl.
Briskeffervescence of CO2 shows the presence of chalk powder
or washing soda in the given sample of sugar.
EXPERIMENT 3 :-
AIM: Detection of Kesari Dal in Besan.
APPARATUS REQUIRED: Test-Tubes, dil. HCI.
PROCEDURE:
Take 1g of the besan sample is taken in a test tube and 10 mL of 70% HCI is
added to it. The content is boiled for some time.

THEORY:
Besan powder is usually adulterated with kesari dal which contains butyl
oxalyl alanine amine (BOAA) which causes lethargy and ultimate
paralysis in lower limbs of human body on regular consumption. The
detection of BOAA in besan powder indicates adulteration of it with
kesari dal. Development of pinkish colour indicates adulteration of besan
with kesari dal.
Table for different samples:-
SL. NO SAMPLES RESULT
1 Open Sample Adulterant Present
2 Packed Sample Adulterant Absent

EXPERIMENT 4 :-
AIM: Detection of starch in milk.
APPARATUS REQUIRED: Test-Tubes, iodine Solution.

THEORY: 
 Along with water, a very common adulterant of milk is starch. Milk
consist of three basic components which are as follows:
(i) Water (about8o).
(ii) Fat (about3.s%).
(iii) Solids containing protein, lactose.
(iv) Mineral matters (about 8.5%).Milk is adulterated with
starch to maintain the thickness of fat extracted milk or
diluted milk.

PROCEDURE: 
At first mL of milk ample is taken in a test tube and is boiled for 3-
4minutes.Then itis cooled and 1-2 drops of iodine solution is added to it and is
shaken well. Appearance of blue colour indicates the presence of starch in the
sample.

P.T.O
Table for different samples: -

S. No. Samples Results

1. Amul Taza Adultrant Absent
2. Dairy Milk Adultrant Present
3. Nestle Everyday Adultrant Absent
4. Amul Adultrant Absent
5. Sudha Adultrant Absent
 :: OBSERVATIONS ::
S. No. EXPERIMENT OBSERVATION
EXPERIMENT 1 :-
1. Adulteration of paraffin wax and Appearance of oil
hydrocarbon in vegetable ghee. floating on the surface
2. Adulteration of dyes in fat. Appearance of pink
colour.
3. Adulteration of argemone oil in No red colour observed.
edible oils.

EXPERIMENT 2 :-
S. No. EXPERIMENT OBSERVATION
1. Adulteration of various Pure sugar dissolves in
insoluble substances in sugar. water but insoluble
impurities do not
dissolve.
2. Adulteration of chalk powder, No brisk effervescence
washing soda in sugar. observed.
Other experiments observations are listed with them.

:: RESULTS ::
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 airtight 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.
 :: 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 a represent 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. Itis
always better to buy certified food from reputed
shops.
 :: BIBLIOGRAPHY ::
Internet:-
https://www.google.com
https://www.scribd.com
https://www.byjus.com
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/3435
Books:-
1. Food Adulteration and its detection- Jesse P.
Battershall.
2. A Treatise on Adulterations of Food, and Culinary
Poisons- Friedrich Christian Accum.