Food Adulteration

A healthy mind dwells in a healthy body. People have become health conscious and nowadays articles and programmes related with health awareness have been attracting millions of household. Hectic schedule, changing food habits and lack of proper timetable in daily routine have only made things complexed for each individual. The health problems further get aggravated for an individual when he/she consumes adulterated items, which adversely affect vital biological systems of human body which include the digestive system and the nervous system.

Moreover, increase in the usage of hazardous chemicals and banned drugs in agricultural products to procure a better yield has resulted in problems related with hormonal imbalance among young children. Use of pesticides and preservatives has increased the number of cases related with infections and problems in skin, kidneys and liver. If one tends to examine school going children in the age group of 5-16 years one will find them suffering from one ailment or the other.

Problems ranging from eyes to psychological disorders have become very common. Indian laws are not so strict when it comes to selling eatables. Anyone can put a kiosk at some roadside either by greasing the palms of municipal authorities or by taking a proper licence from the corporation and then after putting that license on display in a corner of the shop, one can sell any food item. The authorities do not bother to conduct regular inspections and surprise checks on these small vendors dealing in the business of selling food items.

The only time when these municipal and other district authorities given the duty of checking the quality of these food items become active is near festival times. Majority of our citizens who eat food outside have to consume it under unhygienic conditions. Several news reporting agencies have highlighted the shortcomings and loopholes in legal system, which enables these vendors and growers to escape punishment. Farmers were shown growing vegetables by injecting the harmful Oxytosin injection that makes vegetables ready overnight.

Though the drug is banned by the government, it is readily available with the chemists. The authorities also keep conducting raids on such factories, which manufacture spurious items. The biggest question in front of the citizens is how to keep themselves and their children healthy when nothing pure is available. We drink milk, which is also not pure. Then there is a great element of risk in drinking tea outside, as at many places it was found that vendors were using synthetic milk to prepare tea.

Also the consumption of cheese, butter, ghee, khoya (pudding), etc becomes harmful, which otherwise should have made your health result in constipation, improper digestion, kidney failure, etc because they are all made artificially by using all banned chemicals. Adulterants are chemical substances which should not be contained within other substances (eg. food, beverages, fuels for legal or other reasons).

Adulterants may be intentionally added to more expensive substances to increase visible quantities and reduce manufacturing costs, or for some other deceptive or malicious purpose. Adulterants may also be accidentally or unknowingly introduced into substances. The addition of adulterants is called adulteration. Adulteration and duplicate packaging with the help of technology have made lives miserable. Every month the demand of food items is growing following the rise in population and this gives vendors to go for adulteration in order to double their profits.

In the absence of strict punishments under the Indian Penal Code, these adulterators who are playing with the health of millions of citizens and are responsible for killing the nation slowly, get bail and restart their business of adulteration by some other name. Adulteration should be made a national offence, a crime against the nation and the people found involved in this illegal business and practices must be punished severely and life imprisonment should be given to such persons convicted under the adulteration charges.