Food Adulteration in India Witnesses Sharp Spike: Consumers Beware!

Food adulteration in India witnesses sharp rise. Beware of adulterated food, including shiny vegetables.

Fake ‘Plastic’ eggs sold in India

Now here’s another reason why most people in India don’t trust the food produce that’s sold in markets in India. A shopkeeper was arrested for selling “artificial eggs” (made of plastic).

‘Sunday or Monday, eat eggs everyday’, remember that ad on television which promoted eggs as healthy food?

No doubt egg is the richest source of protein, and while people only had concerns about the high level of cholesterol in it, here’s a piece of news that is going to shock you (or rather worry you).

In Kolkata, plastic made eggs were sold in the market.

The woman, who bought the eggs, felt something was fishy after she noticed that the eggs had a strange “plastic-like quality” when spread out on a pan.

“I tested my suspicion by putting a match to it and it caught fire. The shell also looked plastic. I was sure that this was not natural and, being a mother, I felt I should alert the public,” said the woman.

Based on the woman’s complaint, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation took action.

“We have seized a crate of eggs from the wholesaler who sold the eggs to Ansari. We will also collect at least three more crates of similar samples from other shops in the market and send them to the concerned department for analysis,” said Mayor-in-Council (Health) Atin Ghosh of Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

Even though food adulteration is a punishable offence under Food Safety and Standards Act, people involved in such acts should be severely punished (not just fined) because these artificially produced/grown food could be life-threatening.

How to Spot Fake Eggs

Differences between a fake and a real egg, as explained by the Consumer Association of Penang, Malaysia:

• Fake eggs reportedly have rougher shells and are rounder and larger than real ones.
• Fake eggs do not smell of anything when broken, real eggs however smell like meat.
• Yolk of the fake egg appears more yellow and had no sign of the “chalaze”, which is the white string that holds the yolk.
• Fake egg sound watery when you shake it because the chemicals inside do not solidify together.

Yi Junpeng, assistant professor for biological engineering at Henan University of Science and Technology (China), warns of eggs that are too perfectly shaped and smooth. Real eggs have a faint smell, he said, which fake eggs lack. Tapping a fake egg makes a hollower sound than a real egg; once cracked open, egg white and yolk would quickly mix.

Floating Test
Experts suggest doing a floating test to ascertain an egg is fake or not. In this test, you dip eggs in water to see whether it sinks or floats. Fresh eggs will always sink to the bottom of the water. However, a fake egg may not sink.

Fake Eggs Originated from China

Fake eggs were first spotted in Malaysia back in 2011. According to the Malaysian Health Ministry, the shells of the fake eggs were made from calcium carbonate while the yolk and egg white composed of several chemicals like alum, benzoic acid, sodium alginate, calcium chloride, gelatin, water, among others. According to AsiaOne, these fake eggs most likely originated from China.

Fake eggs first appeared in the mid-’90s and production spread all over China, the state news agency Xinhua reported back in 2005. At the time, the production cost of a fake egg was half of its real equivalent. With the proper equipment and materials, one person could produce 1,500 fake eggs per day, another Xinhua report quoted a fake-egg producer’s website as saying.

Are the News on Chinese Fake Eggs True?

Muralee Thummarukudy, chief of Disaster Risk Reduction in the UN Environment Programme, explained why the news on Chinese eggs cannot be believed. He wrote a detailed Facebook post to explain his thinking.

“It has been 10 years since the artificial egg news broke in China, later it reached Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and finally in India after a decade. It is a good story. A big factory, where Chinese make 1000s of eggs using maida and chemicals. The people who eat them get sick and die. But, the story has a problem. Nobody has seen any artificial eggs in any of these countries [translated from Malayalam],” Muralee writes on his Facebook account.

He also explains that selling eggs is not a hugely profitable business. Since an egg costs Rs 5, the merchant buys it for Rs 4, taking a profit of Rs 1. So, they will be willing to buy artificial eggs from dealers only if its available for a lesser rate. The fake eggs have to be imported after clearing many procedures in China and India.

“It has to be noted that these eggs are perfectly made, though making them artificially is not an easy task. It will cost at least Rs 5,000 to take the 3D print of an egg. As far as I understand, China doesn’t have a business model of spending Rs 5,000 for making something and selling it for Rs 5. Not just this, the mass production of artificial eggs will be expensive and such factories need license to operate and professionals to handle the machines,” he adds.

Read the full Facebook post of Muralee Thummarukudy here:

Meanwhile, here’s another video that went viral, in this case this woman shared a video of boild fake egg, she found the yolk and the texture of the egg to be rubbery.

So be alert to spot these signs to make sure you’re getting real eggs, and not fake ones.

Beware, even your favourite paneer could be adulterated

Now even your favourite paneer may not be be authentic after all; police in North India recently seized paneer that was made out of Sulphuric acid. An illegal factory in Ballomajra village (Mohali) was producing Paneer using detergent and urea and processed with sulphuric acid.

A raid conducted by the health department, police and Progressive Dairy Farmers Association found an alarming: 2,060kg of spurious paneer, 120 litres of sulphuric acid, 135 bags each of 25kg of skimmed milk powder, 89kg of butter and 25kg of khoya.

Area of Supply: Chandigarh, Mohali, Kharar, Rajpura, Zirakpur, Derabassi, Kurali. Ropar and Gharuan

Dangerous Mix: Spurious or synthetic paneer is prepared from skimmed milk powder after using sulphuric acid instead of other suitable acids like citric acid, lactic acid, tartaric acid, alum and sour whey, said the investigating health officer.

Sulphuric acid coagulates milk faster than other edible acids and to maintain the compound, desi ghee or butter is used after which the composition is compressed in a machine.

Harmful Effects:

• Consumption of spurious paneer and other milk products is harmful for health
• It causes severe intestinal and stomach infection, which can also be cancerous
• Indigestion and constipation are common symptoms after regular consumption of such products

The detection of illegal units manufacturing synthetic milk and milk products reveals that adulteration is big business and the perpetrators really don’t care how their actions can affect people who consume such products; they are only after profits.

Its high time that the proposed amendments in the food safety act, which will mandate stiff penalty, including life term and heavy fines, for people involved in adulteration, are introduced at the earliest.