Sweets are an important part of celebrating every festival in India. As the festive season approaches, their demand increases significantly. The market is filled with a wide variety of sweets that look and taste delicious. However, the sweets have also raised questions about their hygiene and purity during this festive season as there are daily reports of fake ghee, mawa and dairy products being adulterated.
To extend the shelf life of many candies, chemicals are added to them, and in many other candies, oils are added. In this case, everyone should know how to identify adulterated candy. So today let us tell you how to spot adulterated candy and what risks come with consuming it.
What kind of adulteration is going on at Mawa?
Commenting on this, Sarvesh Mishra, Assistant Director (II), Food Safety and Drug Administration, Gautam Buddha Nagar (Noida) told Aajtak.in: “See, adulteration and making of sweets in contaminated places, both are harmful to health Harmful. “Our health is at risk. If the sweets are prepared in a dirty place without taking care of the cleanliness and if there is smell in the sweets then people will recognize it by themselves but now the shop owners are doing this to make more profit we are doing Doing these two types of adulteration, that is also under our control.
“If we talk about adulterated sweets, the most adulteration happening now is in Mahwah (Koya). Just a few days ago, 100 kg of adulterated mahwah was seized in Sirsa, Greater Noida, and from Meerut transports 400 kilograms of mawa worth Rs 88,000 to Chopra temple in Ghaziabad. If someone consumes mawa, it can be adulterated in two ways. The first type of adulteration is starch. For example potatoes or semolina. This type of adulteration is easy to detect. There is an iodine solution available in the market to check its purity. If the mawa turns black or blue immediately. It is adulterated.
“The second adulteration that happens is extracting butterfat from milk. They make ghee from the fat and sell it, so they benefit from mawa and ghee. They add refined soybean oil or vegetable oil, which is not extracted from milk Fats. These oils are naturally cheap.
“You’ll know if you put it on your tongue to check its purity. The milk is a little sweet. If you substitute refined soy or vegetable oil for a mild sweetness, you’ll get an astringency.
“When you convert milk into Mawa, very little Mawa is produced, i.e. only about 100 grams of Mawa is produced in 1 kg of milk. If someone uses these oils in milk, then he will get more Mawa.
Shampoo and oil are mixed in cheese.
Sarvesh Mishra said: “We are also seeing a lot of adulterated cheese being sold. This means it looks like cheese but it contains a lot of adulteration. It looks like cheese but it doesn’t have cheese. Characteristics. There are only two substances in adulterated cheese. Now if you remove the fat, the cheese will come out smooth.
“To make the cheese smooth, they add refined oil to the cheese so that the fat goes back into it. Some people also add starch to the cheese.
You will find that if any type of vegetable oil is mixed in milk, it will start to float on top of the milk. To mix oil and milk, they emulsify it, that is, they stir it with a blender. But it only becomes emulsified when you add some detergent or shampoo. Without detergent, you won’t be able to mix properly.
“Now, to remove the detergent smell from cheese, they add liquid glucose or maltose to it, which gives the cheese a mild sweetness like milk. Once the cheese is made, the average person has no way of realizing that what they are eating is adulterated. Cheese. “Cheese.” ‘
“Few people eat cheese raw. Even if someone eats raw cheese, he can understand its taste because it tastes astringent on the tongue and its purity can be determined by adding iodine solution.
What should you pay attention to when buying candy?
Sarvesh Mishra said: “One thing I told you is that you can detect contaminated sweets by looking at the hygiene, smell or taste there. Apart from that, you should Avoid buying colorful candies. Although food coloring or artificial food coloring is legal, excessive use can be harmful to health. Know that a maximum of one gram of coloring in one kilogram of candy is considered safe. Therefore, avoid buying too many brightly colored candies. of candy. You won’t be able to determine the hygienic condition of the candy if it’s stored in the store, so remember to always buy candy from a store that you know takes care of the cleanliness when making it.
“If there’s silver on the candy, take it out of the candy, put it in your hand, and rub it between your thumbs. If there’s pure silver bark, it’ll disappear, and if it’s mixed with aluminum foil, it’ll turn into bullets. The reason for this is that silver is a metal that can be made into the thinnest form. If it were real, it would disappear after the thinnest form, while aluminum would remain the same, just its shape would change.
“Sonpapadi is very popular during Diwali. It is said to be made from ghee, but what if the ghee itself is adulterated? If we talk about Sonpapadi, then you can tell from the smell of Sonpapadi whether it contains vegetable oil or not. Many times , the vegetable oil is mixed with the essence of ghee. Therefore, its smell changes, but some flavors remain the same. To identify it, you will smell the vegetable oil as soon as you open the box of Sonpapadi.
“If you are going to eat packaged sweets, then always check its levels. Many companies are packaging and selling low-quality sweets without registration. So always look for the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) mark on packaged sweets .
Eating adulterated candy can cause these problems
Talking about the side effects of eating adulterated sweets on the body, Dr. Abhinav Gupta, gastroenterologist at Narayana Hospital, Jaipur, told Aajtak.in, “The most affected organs are the stomach and kidneys when eating sweets. “Anything bad will affect the body first. Stomach upset, similarly, eating adulterated candies and cheese can also cause stomach pain, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, nervousness, etc. Indigestion can last a long time, and if you eat fake candy or cheese for a long time, your chances of developing kidney stones increase.
“Besides that, it can also affect the liver and heart because the fake sweets are mixed with low-quality oils, which leads to increased cholesterol and you can face a lot of problems due to this.”
Detergents, preservatives, excess oil, palm oil flavor, etc. are added to sweets and cheese. These help keep the candy fresh and fragrant for a long time. But these things can make these candies even more toxic.
“Added colorings in food are also sometimes found in excess, which may lead to skin irritations or throat problems. If you consume adulterated sweets or cheese, you may initially face problems such as stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea. If anyone sees If you have such symptoms, please consult your doctor immediately and explain in detail the food you eat.
“The best and most useful way to prevent this condition is to drink plenty of water. This allows the toxins in the body to be flushed out of the body.
