Question

Causes and impact of adulteration of food

Answer 1

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Food Adulteration is the additional added substances or removal of important substances which makes the food at its worst state ever. The Adulteration of food is generally regarded as unsafe, impure and not of original quality and not at all wholesome or beneficial to health. By far that goes some go unfazed and consume it without any proper checks whether the food is adulterated or of pure quality with no addition of chemicals or unnatural synthetic compounds, sometimes toxic to human health and life threatening in some cases when consumed in larger quantities.
The causes of Adulteration of food are:

$\textbf{Natural}$ as it is always present in the nature and due to some chemically occurring compounds which change the chemistry of the natural state in particular inducing toxicity, sometimes free radicals form inside those organic compounds again changing the structure by which it could suitably form at its initial stages. Some species of the fishes are known to contain high mercury levels especially the basking sharks, hammerhead sharks, some tuna species, etc. these are contained in the fins and can potentially kill someone if taken in high amounts, this time, the tradition of Chinese honoring Shark Fin Soup will contain poisonous substances, hence, it is adulterated naturally.

$\textbf{Unintentional}$ or by mistakenly can happen due to some improper observations and lack of labour power or machines to keep a proper check on the listed foods that could potentially get adulterated for not maintaining food quality, hence, might get poisoned or unfavourable because of stimulus or organisms which carry dirt or chemicals (such as species of flies, cockroaches). Thus, hygiene plays an important role to produce best quality and pure food. This can also happen accidentally due to packaging and handling if the products, the system should be organised to handle packaged food products and should get counteracting products if adulterated to some extent or discarded if not reversible.

$\textbf{Intentional}$ this is done purposely for economical benefits and for supporting the company or vendors for financial purposes, often done to evade problems and cover their financial issues. This type of food Adulteration is usually done through adding coloring food agents or toxic and harmful preservatives which is not essentially required and is readily doing harm or destroying the quality of the food presented. Most common form of Adulteration is generally seen in milk, where water is added as a extra solution to make milk tasteless and to provide the funding for themselves for next milking of cows.

The effects are disastrous and catastrophic as the toxins present in the food will damage the immune health, especially of those with weak immune system like old people or children or the one which are undergoing infancy and this can cause a multitude of harmful effects in the body. Ranging from stomach cancers to long time paralysis and it's eventual death by excess of toxins. It can change the total nutritive value present normally in a pure food, this will cause weakness and nutritive and mineral deficiency in the body making us susceptible to heart attack, cardiac failure, liver disorders, kidney disorders and stones, and some other induced with carcinogenic tissues.

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Hope it helps and solves your query!!