Question

Nitric acid is used to detect adulteration in which of these food items?
(a) Skimmed milk
(b) Ghee
(c) Beverages
(d) Mustard oil

Answer 1

Hint: Adulteration is the process in which the inferior quality products are added to the original product to increase the quantity of the original product thereby reducing the quality. It alters the quality of the product. It generally refers to contamination of the food by adding additives that make the food impure. There are some laws that have been made against adulteration so that harmful ingredients are not added into it.

Complete answer:
A food is called to be adulterated if it omits important or essential components in it. The adulterants are added to the pure substances to increase its quantity by decreasing its quality. There are different types of adulteration such as metallic contamination which includes the arsenic form. The other is intentional contamination which includes sand, marble, etc. the other one is incidental contamination which includes pesticides, tin, etc. copper and lead are toxic substances which are used in high doses for adulteration in foods. The test for adulteration for mustard is that if we take a tablespoon of oil and we mix it with 5mL of nitric acid , and then the mixture turns yellowish orange color or crimson color then this shows that the mustard oil has been adulterated with argemone oil. We can put two drops of lemon on it after a minute. find adulteration in salt too. First cut a piece of potato and sprinkle some salt over it. Then add two drops of lemon on it after a minute. If the salt turns blue then it is an iodised salt.

Hence the correct option for this question is option ‘d'.

Note: there are many ill effects of adulteration and that is neurotoxicity. The other effects are liver damage, kidney damage. The adulterants are added to milk too and that are soap, table sugar, chemicals such as formalin.