Question

Crimson red appearance indicates the adulteration of which food items?
A) Skimmed milk
B) Mustard oil
C) Ghee
D) Milk

Answer 1

Hint: Adulterants are not the same as authorised food preservatives, for example. The border between adulterant and addiction can be blurry; chicory may be added to coffee to cut costs or produce a particular flavour—this is adulteration if not reported, but it may be indicated on the label.

Complete answer:
Adulterants have been employed in the past, and sometimes harmful drugs have been used. Adulterants were common in the United Kingdom up until the Victorian era; for example, cheeses were sometimes coloured with lead. During the nineteenth century, similar adulteration difficulties were encountered in the industry in the United States.

Adulteration is the addition of undesired and inferior ingredients in food. Adulterants are materials or substances that are added to food. Ghee is frequently tainted with vanaspati. When ghee is tainted with coal tar dyes, though. Adding hydrochloric acid to the ghee detects this adulteration.

Skimmed oil Test: If adding nitric acid drop by drop to a test milk sample causes an orange colour to appear, it means the milk has been tainted with skim milk powder. Samples that do not contain skim milk powder are yellow in colour. In a test tube, pour 5 mL of milk. 3–4 drops of sulphuric acid, concentrated

Mustard oil test: Take a tablespoon of oil and combine it with 5 mL of nitric acid in a small mixing bowl. If the mixture becomes a yellowish orange or scarlet colour, Argemone oil has been added. 4. Barometer test: The barometer value for pure mustard oil is 58 to 60. 5. If the reading exceeds this, the oil is phoney.

Milk test: Put a drop of milk on a slanting polished surface. Pure milk either remains stationary or flows slowly, producing a white trail. Milk that has been tainted with water will flow freely without leaving a trace.

Ghee test: Chalk was frequently added to bread flour to cut costs and improve whiteness, but calcium actually has health benefits, and a little amount of chalk may be incorporated as an ingredient in modern bread for this reason.

The presence of crimson red colour in ghee implies that it has been adulterated with coal tar colouring. As a result, option C is the proper response.

Note: Some of the following are examples of contaminated food from the past and today, some of which are dangerous:
- Apple jellies (jams), as a cheaper alternative to fruit jellies, with additional colourant and occasionally even wood flecks to imitate raspberry or strawberry seeds
- Honey that has been tainted with high fructose corn syrup or cane sugar.
- To make the appearance of beef sausage for the sausage roll filling, soak brown bread in red ochre.