Opinion India has a serious food adulteration problem

As per the recent report of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5, 2019-21) conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the nutrition indicators for children under five reflect that the rate of stunting is at 35.5 per cent, wasting at 19.3 per cent and underweight prevalence at 32.1 per cent. Despite such statistical evidence, nutrition and public health remain neglected. This is also why there is no outrage over food adulteration, which should be a grave concern for public health.

As a child growing up in the 1990s, I often heard stories about adulterated milk. Parents would often complain about how milkmen mix water in milk, and it affects their children’s nutritional intake. As we have entered the 2020s, stories of food adulteration, including milk, continue to remain relevant. For instance, the National Survey on Milk Adulteration in 2011 revealed that 70 per cent of the milk samples that were tested in India did not meet the standards of food safety.

Water is the main adulterant in milk. Other adulterants include salt, detergents and glucose. The correlation between the NFHS-5 numbers and the rate of milk adulteration makes perfect sense. In most parts of the country, milk continues to be a major part of children’s diets as it is seen as a nutritious food.

In recent times, there have been alarming reports on food adulteration in several other items of daily consumption like paneer, watermelon, spices, etc. News reports from different parts of the country, like Delhi, Mumbai, and Noida, have revealed that the market is flooded with “fake paneer”. The most common adulterants include starch, detergents, synthetic milk, acetic acid, etc. The same has been the case with adulterated watermelons that are available in the market. Eating these food items can lead to severe health consequences like food poisoning, sometimes even death.

Adulterated food should send alarm bells ringing in a country that is grappling with both communicable and non-communicable health issues. India is often known as the diabetes capital of the world, with around 77 million people, above 18, suffering from this non-communicable disease. A recent study by the Indian Medical Council of Research (ICMR) and the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, Chennai, has attributed this to the kind of food Indians eat. The higher number of diabetics is closely connected to the fried and ultra-processed foods that are consumed. The use of low-quality oil is also a contributing factor. Edible oil is also one of the most adulterated food items in the country. Adulterants such as rice bran oil, argemone oil and artificial allyl isothiocyanate are added to mustard oil.

The case of adulteration in spices is even more striking. Paradoxically, spices have often been hailed as elements that can help control and eliminate health issues. In April 2024, Hong Kong suspended the sale of certain MDH and Everest spice blends because of the presence of large amounts of ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing pesticide. It is not an exaggeration to state that Indian soft power, especially its culinary capital, is synonymous with its spices. The country’s colonial history and global reach are both connected to the rich and diverse variety of spices naturally grown in this land. Made in India spices, considered to be one of the major exports, are widely sold worldwide. Apart from health, the country’s international reputation is impacted when these cases come up. The European Union (EU) has already raised concerns about the presence of ethylene oxide in chilli peppers and peppercorns from India. It even banned 400 items for heavy contamination between 2019 and 2024.

These cases of adulteration have been reported despite the presence of a government body — the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). In response, the FSSAI has been conducting raids, sample tests and cancelling manufacturing licenses of many manufacturers. People have also been directed to be wary of purchasing adulterated products, check carefully and preferably eat items like paneer at home. But these initiatives are not enough.

By saying that citizens must be aware and eat at home, the obligation to eat healthy food is shifted from the state to the individual. This is particularly difficult to achieve in a country that still has large populations of poor and uneducated people. What is required is better farming, processing and packaging practices. Producers at every level need better training and knowledge about safe food practices. The FSSAI must ensure stricter implementation across India, as many states do not have the requisite infrastructure to do so. There is also a need to look at the permissible levels of pesticides in food and to rethink food and its relationship with health. We must develop the concept of food literacy to fight nutritional and health hazards.

The writer teaches Sociology at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati