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Adulteration: food by food
What is commonly used to adulterate each food, the warning signs, and simple checks you can try at home.
Milk and milk products
Milk is among the most commonly adulterated foods. FSSAI's DART lists simple household checks for water, detergent and starch, and a sensory check for synthetic milk.
Ghee and butter
DART lists a household check for starch such as mashed potato or sweet potato in ghee and butter.
Cooking oils
DART lists household checks for other oils in coconut oil and for TOCP in oils and fats, and describes how to judge winterised salad oils.
Spices, salt and condiments
DART covers the largest set of household checks here: chilli, turmeric, black pepper, cloves, cinnamon, cumin, mustard, saffron, asafoetida (hing), and common salt.
Honey
DART describes two simple household checks for sugar solution added to honey.
Sweets, sugar and confectionery
DART covers chalk in sugar and jaggery, urea in sugar, aluminium in silver leaf (vark) and artificial sweeteners in sweetmeats.
Pulses (dal)
DART lists visual checks for khesari dal and chakunda beans, and a check for added colour.
Food grains and flour
DART covers visible impurities, excess bran in wheat flour, added colour, and rhodamine B on ragi, among other checks.
Fruits and vegetables
DART lists household checks for malachite green on green vegetables, artificial colour on green peas, and rhodamine B on sweet potato.
Tea and coffee
DART has a Beverages section covering clay and chicory in coffee, and exhausted tea, coal-tar colour and iron filings in tea.