Adulterant

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For deterioration of the quality of the substance caused by naturally as well as a result of environmental factors such as heat, humidity etc, see Contamination.
For the drug slang of the term adulteration, see Lacing (drugs).
Not to be confused with Adultery.

An adulterant is caused by the act of adulteration, a practice of secretly mixing a substance with another. Typical substances that are adulterated include but are not limited to

chemicals
, that compromise the safety or effectiveness of the said substance.

Definition

Adulteration is the a practice of secretly mixing a substance with another.[1]The secretly added substance will not normally be present in any specification or declared substances due to accident or negligence rather than intent, and also for the introduction of unwanted substances after the product has been made. Adulteration, therefore, implies that the adulterant was introduced deliberately in the initial manufacturing process, or sometimes that it was present in the raw materials and should have been removed, but was not.[citation needed]

An adulterant is distinct from, for example, permitted

bread flour; this reduces the cost and increases whiteness, but the calcium confers health benefits, and in modern bread, a little chalk may be included as an additive for this reason.[citation needed
]

In wartime, adulterants have been added to make foodstuffs "go further" and prevent shortages. The

Soviet Bloc such as coffee were adulterated[how?] to make them affordable to the general population.[citation needed
]

In food and beverages

rice starch (left) and arrowroot
(right) and a mixture of the two (center), c. 1909

Past and present examples of adulterated food, some dangerous, include:

History

Historically, the use of adulterants has been common; sometimes dangerous substances have been used. In the United Kingdom up to the Victorian era, adulterants were common; for example, cheeses were sometimes colored with lead. Similar adulteration issues were seen in industries in the United States, during the 19th century. There is a dispute over whether these practices declined primarily due to government regulation or to increased public awareness and concern over the practices.[citation needed]

In the early 21st century, cases of dangerous adulteration occurred in the People's Republic of China.[5][6]

In some African countries, it is not uncommon for thieves to break electric

PCBs.[7]

Adulterant use was first investigated in 1820 by the German chemist

Frederick Accum, who identified many toxic metal colorings in food and drink. His work antagonized food suppliers, and he was ultimately discredited by a scandal over his alleged mutilation of books in the Royal Institution library. The physician Arthur Hill Hassall conducted extensive studies in the early 1850s, which were published in The Lancet and led to the 1860 Food Adulteration Act and other legislation.[8] John Postgate led a further campaign, leading to another Act of 1875, which forms the basis of the modern legislation and a system of public analysts who test for adulteration.[citation needed
]

At the turn of the 20th century, industrialization in the United States led to a rise in adulteration, which inspired some protest. Accounts of adulteration led the

New York Evening Post
to parody:

Mary had a little lamb,
And when she saw it sicken,
She shipped it off to Packingtown,
And now it's labeled chicken.[9]

However, even in the 18th century, people complained about adulteration in food:

"The bread I eat in London is a deleterious paste, mixed up with chalk, alum and bone ashes, insipid to the taste and destructive to the constitution. The good people are not ignorant of this adulteration; but they prefer it to wholesome bread, because it is whiter than the meal of corn [wheat]. Thus they sacrifice their taste and their health. . . to a most absurd gratification of a misjudged eye; and the miller or the baker is obliged to poison them and their families, in order to live by his profession." – Tobias Smollett, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771)[10]

Incidents

See also: List of food contamination incidents

See also

References

  1. ^ "Difference Between Adulteration and Contamination". Compare the Difference Between Similar Terms. 16 July 2014.
  2. ^ The Times, Police, 5 February 1894; pg. 14
  3. ^ Burros, Marian (9 August 2006). "The Customer Wants a Juicy Steak? Just Add Water". The New York Times.
  4. ^ Weise, Elizabeth (24 April 2007). "Food tests promise tough task for FDA". USA Today. Retrieved 29 April 2007.
  5. PMID 19618684
    .
  6. PMID 37012259
    .
  7. ^ Thieves fry Kenya's power grid for fast food, Al Jazeera, 28 December 2014
  8. ^ Coley, Noel (1 March 2005). "The fight against food adulteration". Education in Chemistry. Vol. 42, no. 2. Royal Society of Chemistry. pp. 46–49. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  9. ^ Jeffrey M. Pilcher, Food in World History New York: Routledge, 2006, p. 59
  10. ^ "Weston A.Price: Against the Grain, Section Bread to Feed the Masses". Archived from the original on 20 August 2010. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  11. ^ "Juiceless baby juice leads to full-length justice|FDA Consumer". Archived from the original on 10 December 2007.
  12. ^ "Conagra Set to Settle Criminal Charges It Increased Weight and Value of Grain". The New York Times. Bloomberg News. 20 March 1997.
  13. ^ Sinha, Kounteya (10 January 2012). "70% of milk in Delhi, country is adulterated". The Times of India. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  14. ^ Piper, Kelsey (20 September 2023). "Lead poisoning kills millions annually. One country is showing the way forward". Vox.

Further reading

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Adulteration".
Look up adulterant in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

External links

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