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OJHAS Vol. 10, Issue 3:
(Jul-Sep 2011) |
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| Buying Practices
and Prevalence of Adulteration in Selected Food items in a
Rural Area of Wardha District: A Cross - Sectional Study |
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Khapre MP, Assistant Professor,
Mudey A, Professor,
Sonali Chaudhary, Asst. Professor,
Wagh V, Professor and Head,
Ajay Dawale, Asst. Professor,
Department
of Community Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical
College, Sawangi (M), Wardha, Maharashtra, India. |
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Address for Correspondence |
Assistant Professor,
Department of
Community Medicine,
Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College,
Sawangi
(M), Wardha,
Maharashtra, India
E-mail:
drmeenaxi15@yahoo.com |
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Khapre MP, Mudey A, Chaudhary S, Wagh V, Dawale A. Buying Practices
and Prevalence of Adulteration in Selected Food items in a
Rural Area of Wardha District: A Cross - Sectional Study. Online J Health Allied Scs.
2011;10(3):4 |
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Submitted: Aug 5,
2011; Accepted: Oct 1, 2011; Published: Nov 15, 2011 |
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| Abstract: |
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Introduction: Food adulteration in India
includes both willful adulteration and substandard food which do not
confirm to prescribe food standard. There is striking paucity of reliable
data with regard to extent of adulteration and documentation of food
borne illnesses reflecting lack of attention and focus on this problem.
Objectives: To find the prevalence of food adulteration, buying
practices of selected food items and their awareness towards food adulteration
act. Also assess relationship between per-capita incomes, education
of respondents, and food borne illnesses with magnitude of adulteration
in each house-hold. Methods: With the best
estimate of 50%, sample size comes to 89. By stratifying the village
according to social strata and randomly selecting the households with
PPS. Questionnaire was administered to fulfill our objectives and food
items were tested. Data analyzed by numeral with percentage, Pearson
moment correlation, F test and chi square test. Results: In 68.5% Households,
wife (home-maker) buys the grocery. Majority of them never read the
food labels. All the selected food items were adulterated ranging from
76 % to 11%. Mean percentage of purity was highest in literates (47.5
± 22.48) than illiterates and just literates. Food borne illness was
prevalent in households with low purity of food. Association was found
between per capita income and percentage of purity (0.765).
Key Words:
Adulteration; Awareness; Per capita income; Food borne illness |
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Food adulteration in India
includes both willful adulteration and substandard food which do not
confirm to prescribe food standard. Rarely any food item is spared from
malicious practice of food adulteration. According to a news article
published in year 2002, The Times of India Hyderabad: “There might
be iron filings in the sugar you use, including what is distributed
through fair price shops all over the state. [1] In a shocking revelation,
the Food and Drug administration (FDA) Mumbai in 2007, has said that
“nearly 25% of the milk produced in the state is adulterated.”[2]
National health account 2004-05 shows that minimal of 0.3% of International
classification of health accounts (ICHA) functions is spent
on prevention of food adulteration[3], though it leads to spectrum
of disease from minor health problem like diarrhea to serious problem
like cancer, from curable to incurable disease that can ruin ones lifestyle
and life.
The three main cause of food
adulteration are
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Dishonesty of traders
to make quick and easy money
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Loopholes in food
adulteration act – as evident by fact that eighty percent of food
adulteration accused walk free in Gujarat due to laxity and delay in
prosecuting them.[4]
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Ignorance of consumer
regarding their right and responsibilities towards food adulteration
resulting in faulty buying practices. Food labeling is a tool for consumer
to make healthy and informed choices which is their right and responsibility
is to read it. But according to one survey only 59% of consumers are
able to understand it.[5]
There is striking paucity of
reliable data with regard to extent of adulteration and documentation
of food borne illnesses reflecting lack of attention and focus on this
problem. Hence present study was carried out to find the prevalence
of food adulteration, buying practices of selected food items and their
awareness towards food adulteration act. Further we had assessed relationship
between per-capita incomes, education of respondents, food borne illnesses
with magnitude of adulteration in each house-hold. After 56 years law,
it is clear that mere implementation is not enough, therefore along
with our study we had equipped the house-makers with simple household
techniques for identification of food adulteration for selected
food items.
As food adulteration is widely
prevalent in society ,we have consider best estimate to be 50% , with
95% of confidence interval and alpha error 0.05 % and 10% non response
rate, sample size was 89. Mahakal village situated in Wardha district
with population of two thousand was selected. Sampling was done by stratifying
the village into five social strata and randomizing household from each
stratum equal to proportional to population size. Questionnaire was
administered to member of each house-hold who is mainly responsible
for buying the groceries. Questionnaires included information on per-
capita income, buying practices, awareness on quality food symbols,
history of food borne illness in the house hold in last four weeks.
Depending on availability and simplicity of procedure for detection
of adulterants, ten food items were selected. After informed consent,
selected food items were tested.
If we see the list of adulterated
items, it is very large. Common people already know about the adulteration
in rice, dal, wheat and they are already aware of it. The spices and
other selected items are mostly used in this region and available in
almost every house. All of this items are sold loosely here. Along with
the testing we had also demonstrated them, the easy simple methods to
detect adulteration as seen below and made aware of food adulteration
practices in other items too. This doesn’t require any laboratory
as evident from table below. Considering our convenience for testing
the adulteration and availability of items we selected these items.
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Table 1: Methods used for detection
of adulteration in selected food items |
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Substance |
Adulterant
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Test
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| Asafoetida (hing) |
Rasin or gum, scented and
coloured |
- Pure asafetida dissolves
in water to form a milk white solution.
- Pure asafetida burns
with a bright flame on being ignited
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| Cardamon (Elaichi) |
The essential oil is removed
and the pods are faced with talcum powder |
On rubbing the talcum will
stick to the fingers, on tasting if there is hardly any aromatic flavor.
it indicates removal of essential oil. |
| Chilles |
Sawdust and colour |
Sprinkle on the surface of
water, wood shavings float and added colour will stain water. |
| Cinnamon(Dalchini) |
Cassia bark which resembles
cinnamon in taste and colour |
Added colour comes out in
water |
| Cloves(lavang) |
Essential oil may have been
removed |
If the cloves will be shrunken
in appearance. |
| Rawa |
Iron fillings to add weight |
Pass a magnet through the
rawa. Iron fillings will cling to it |
| Sago |
Sand |
If sand is mixed, it can be
easily detected visually |
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Talcum |
Greasy feel in mixing with
water
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| Scented
Supari |
Saccharine |
Bitter after taste
of saccharine |
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Small pieces of coloured wood |
When put in water,
pieces of wood float and their colour will spread. |
| Shahajira |
Charcoal or brick
powder |
Rub a little quantity of shahajira
between the palms. The palms will be blackened, if charcoal is present |
| Tea dust
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Exhausted tea leaves dried.
Powdered and artificially coloured |
Sprinkle the dust on a wet
white paper. Spots of yellow, pink and red coloured appearing on the
paper indicate that the tea is artificially coloured. |
Accordingly in each family,
percentage of purity was determined by Total no. of food without adulteration
/ total no. of food tested X 100. The response rate was 100%.Data
was analyzed by numeral with
percentage, Pearson moment correlation, F test and chi square test.
In 68.5% households, wife (home-maker) buys the
grocery, 64% of the respondents belong to social class IV and V while
59.5% of them were illiterate.
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Table 2: Demographic
profile of respondents who buys the grocery for home
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Profile |
Frequency |
Percentage |
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Distribution
of respondent |
Wife (homemaker) |
61 |
68.54% |
| Husband (head of
family) |
17 |
19.1% |
| Other |
11 |
12.36% |
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Socio-economic
status |
I |
7 |
7.8% |
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II |
10 |
11.23% |
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III |
15 |
16.85% |
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IV |
26 |
29.21% |
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V |
31 |
34.83% |
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Education
status |
Illiterate |
53 |
59.55 % |
| Just literate |
6 |
6.74% |
| Literate |
30 |
33.71% |
Of the
respondents, 86%, 70.7%, and 43.8% never
see the nutritional label, manufacturing and expiry date and weight
respectively but 77.5% always see the maximum retail price of product.
Only 10% always buy the packed sealed edibles.
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Table 3: Buying
practices of respondents
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Buying practices |
Always |
Occasional |
Never |
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Packed sealed edible |
9 (10.11%) |
29 (32.58%) |
51 (57.3%) |
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Check MRP |
71(77.53%) |
12 (13.48%) |
6(9%) |
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Check weight |
22(24.72%) |
28(31.46%) |
39 (43.82%) |
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Manufacture and expiry
date |
4(4.49) |
22(24.72) |
63(70.79) |
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Nutritional label |
0 |
12(13.48) |
77(86.52) |
Cloves was found to be maximally
adulterated in 73% households followed by supari (68.5%), tea (60.67%), chillies (51.68%) etc.
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Table 4: Adulteration found in various food items.
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Food items |
Adulterated |
Percentage |
| Cloves |
65 |
73.03 % |
| Supari |
61 |
68.54 % |
| Tea |
54 |
60.67 % |
| Chilies |
46 |
51.68 % |
| Cardamom |
43 |
48.31 % |
| Jeera |
34 |
38.20 % |
| Cinnemom |
22 |
24.72 % |
| Asafetida |
21 |
23.59 % |
| Sago |
11 |
12.36 % |
| Rawa (semolina) |
9 |
10.11 % |
Mean percentage of purity was
highest for literates (47.5 ± 22.48), followed by just literates (47.5
± 22.52) and lowest for illiterates (30.22 ± 2.99). Difference
between means of literate and illiterate was found to be significant
(Table 5).
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Table 5:
Educational status and mean percentage of purity found in household
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Education |
Frequency |
Mean % purity |
S.D |
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Illiterate |
53 |
30.22 |
2.99 |
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Just literate |
6 |
47.5 |
22.52 |
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Literate |
30 |
72.2 |
22.48 |
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F ratio - 16.26 ***
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Figure 1: Family per capita income and mean percentage of
purity found in household.
r – 0.765, S.E – 0.056, t – 8.884 *** |
Significantly moderately positive
correlation was found between family per capita income and mean percentage
of purity found in households. (r – 0.765) (Fig 1.)
Adulteration and its ill effect
on health is known to everyone but no one in picture is trying to solve
it. Strong regulations are there in code of conduct but not implemented
to full extent. Consumers are unaware of their rights and responsibilities.
With this background we are trying to explore the extent of adulteration
in community, understand the consumer’s knowledge, their buying practices,
rights and responsibilities towards food adulteration and equip them
with simple detection techniques of selected foods.
In present study out of 89
families, in 68.5% families’ wife (homemaker) buys the grocery. Mean
age of respondents was 35± 6.2 yrs, 60% of them belong to class IV
and V while 59.5% were just literate and only 33% were literate. Homemaker
is mainly responsible for buying grocery in families, so she should
be main focus of consumer’s movement. 77% of consumers always check
for MRP while only 24.7% checked weight, 4.5% manufacturing and expiry
date while none of them read the nutritional label. Only price is the
important factor while buying the grocery and nutritional value is of
no value to them. In other study done in south India 68% read label
for date before expiry while only half of respondents check the
ingredient of food label.[6] Literacy is more in South India but still
they are unaware of nutritional values. According to one survey only
21% of Indian food had used local language so most of consumers are
not able to understand the food labels.[7]
38% buys the packed sealed
edible at one time or other. Study conducted by NIN 2006 revealed 60%
of households buy packed food but only 21% read the labels.[8] Later
study was conducted in megacity where packed edibles are available.
In present study main reason for not buying packed sealed edibles was
non availability and high prices. 40% 0f respondents know about Agmark,
FPO, and ISI as quality marked product but only 23.9% are able to recognize
symbol on food label which is similar to other study carried in slum
area of Hyderabad. [9] Studies among south Indian women indicated although
women see the label on packed food for manufacture and expiry date but
many of them are not aware of quality symbols.[6] Only 24.7% respondent
knows whom to complain in case of adulteration but all of them accepted
that they had never tried to lodge a complaint due to tedious
procedure.
On testing ten selected items
in 89 households, mean percentage of purity was 54.67% ± 2.689, S.D
25.36, that means in each household out of this ten food items at least
half of them were adulterated. Highest adulteration was found
in cloves followed by supari, tea, chillies and least in rawa. Adulteration
is common in food stuff where they can be easily concealed. Mainly
it was done intentionally by local shops with easily available adulterants
to add the weight, improve the appearance and abstract the useful substance.
Adulteration is high in small cities and villages as revealed by Roday(2002)
due to low purchasing power and consumers ignorance about their rights
for safe food.[10] Moderately positive correlation significant at 0.01%
was found between family income and percentage of purity in each household.
Also F ratio was computed for mean percentage of purity and respondent’s
education status was found to be highly significant. To find if there
exist any differences of mean percentage of purity in illiterate and
just literate, t test was computed. The result revealed there is no
significant relationship in two groups. So it is only the formal education
and high per capita family income that influences the amount of adulteration
found in households. Other studies carried out by Dhyani states
that education and family income strongly associated with consumer’s
awareness.[11]
Twenty one families had history of
food borne illness in past four weeks. When two groups with cut off
of 50% of purity was compared for past history of food borne illness,
the difference was found to be highly significant.(χ2 – 7.612).
A striking observation during study showed that prevalence of diarrhea
was high among pre-school in spite of access to safe drinking water,
toilet facilities and strong health infrastructure. This was mainly
attributed to food hygiene and safety. Thus adulteration is slow poison
weakens the health of family, increasing the health care cost pushing
them to poverty and vicious cycle continues.
Adulterant is rampant in poor
strata of society due to consumer’s illiteracy and ignorance of their
rights responsibilities towards food adulteration. High incidence of
food borne illness is found in families who consume adulterated food.
The government on its part
can make the consumer aware of their rights and responsibilities by
campaign make the complaint procedure consumer friendly, availability
of quality fair price shop for poorest quintiles. Only when the people
are aware of their rights to demand pure and nutritive food instead
of becoming brunt and suffering quietly and take to task the unscrupulous
traders and manufacturer by way of filing public interest litigation
in court, then only such serious social evil of food adulteration can
be aborted to certain extent. Honest implementation of law is a key
approach.
- Rao SC. Food adulteration goes unchecked.
The Times of India 21 May 2002. Accessed: 2/12/2010.
Available at
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com//city/hyderabad/Food-adulteration-goes-unchecked/articleshow/13507365.cms
- Naik Y. 25% of milk in state adulterated.
The Times of India 16th June 2007. Accessed
on 2/12/2010. Available at
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com//city/mumbai/25-of-milk-in-state-adulterated/articleshow/2127308.cms
-
National Health Accounts Cell. National Health Accounts - India: 2004-05.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. September 2009.
Available at
http://www.whoindia.org/LinkFiles/Health_Finance_National_Health_Accounts_2004-05.pdf accessed on 30/12/20210.
- Dhulia A. Laws
of food adulteration: A critical study with special reference to the
food safety and standard act 2006. ILI Law Review, vol 1. 2010, pp 163-
188.
- Nielsen AC.
Consumer attitudes towards nutritional labelling. A.C. Nielsen, Global On-line
Consumer Survey, 2005. Available at:
http://ie.nielsen.com/pubs/documents/EUROLabelingTrends05_000.pdf
(accessed 2/1/ 2011).
- Sudershan RV, Subba
Rao GM, Rao P, Rao VVM, Polasa K. Knowledge and practices of food safety regulators in Southern India.
Nutrition and Food Science. 2008;38(2):110-120.
- Assessment of current
scenario of food labelling in India, Final report. 2009, NIN, Hyderabad.
- National Institute of
Nutrition KABP Study on food and drug safety in India—A
Report. Food and drug toxicology Research Centre. National Institute
of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad, India..2006
- Sudershan RV, Subba
Rao GM, Rao P, Rao VVM, Polasa K. Food safety related perceptions and practices of mothers – A case
study in Hyderabad, India. Food Control. 2008;19:506-513.
- Roday S. Food hygiene and sanitation, Tata
McGraw Hill Publishing company Ltd., New Delhi. 2002. pp: 248-249.
- Dhyani A, Saklani
A. To assess awareness of consumers towards consumer protection laws. J.
Marketing, 1994;23(7,8):9-12.
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