Food Adulteration and Some Methods of Detection, Review

Abstract

Most of the Foods we are having are prone to food fraud and adulteration. Food adulteration is either the addition of a non-food item to increase the quantity of raw or prepared food intentionally or non food substances added accidentally. Food adulteration also includes any poisonous or deleterious substances which may render the food injurious to health. Food adulteration can be either the act of addition, removing valuable food component or substitution of these valuable ingredients with relatively less expensive (cheaper) substances for unfair economic gain. This act of food fraud may be an economic gain for the manufacturer, while it is loss for the final consumers of the products. While buying and serving an adulterated foods, consumers are affected in different ways; they may not getting the intended food nutrients, the adulterated foods may be unsafe for health and it can also be economic loss to the consumers. There are different food known to be prone to adulteration both in our country Ethiopia and the world including milk, meat, injera in our country, Ethiopia, honey, butter, juices, and etc as examples. There was a report through media outlet very recently in Ethiopia about adulteration of injera with saw dust. There are different methods through which food adulteration can be detected. These methods include physical, chemical, biochemical, and other techniques. Detection of food adulterant is more difficult when both adulterant and the food itself have approximately the same physiochemical makeup. Adulterations of food interfere with consumers’ right to get safe and good quality foods. So, all responsible individuals, organization, including government should fulfill their responsibility to protect the act of food adulteration and to expose the identified acts. Moreover, researchers and academia working in different research institute have many gaps to address related to the topic including assessment of the status, identification of foods susceptible for adulteration in the context of the country, development and validation of detection methods and much more.