It is difficult to check for the presence of sawdust in turmeric through a direct test at home. However, since sawdust receives its colour from that of the wood, it is often added to turmeric along with a colouring agent. The test for the colouring agent can confirm the presence of sawdust.

Chalk powder is added not only to turmeric but also to many other Indian spices. Since it is calcium carbonate, it reacts with any acidic substance. To check for the presence of chalk in any spice, add a little amount of Vinegar to the spice. An effervescence will confirm the presence of chalk.

Take a little amount of turmeric powder in clear glass. Add a small amount of Vinegar to it. The colour should change to Pink. Now add a small amount of water. If the pink colour disappears, turmeric is pure. Otherwise Metanil yellow is present in turmeric.

Mineral oil is added to peppercorns to act as a fungicide and also to give a shiny look to peppercorns. Addition of mineral oil makes pepper unfit for human consumption. This was the adulterant found in NCDEX incidence mentioned above.

Sawdust is added to pepper in powder form to reduce cost and increase the profitability for sellers.

Rub some chilli powder on a glass surface. You can use an inverted glass and rub it on its base. If the surface gets scratched, it's because of the presence of brick powder or sand.

Sprinkle some chilli powder on water, if you see streaks of colours descending into the water, it shows the presence of colour.

Add some red chilli to a glass full of water. Soap Stone will settle as a smooth white powder at the base of the glass.

This test involves using concentrated Hydrochloric acid and is not advisable to be carried out at home

Unfortunately, this also cannot be tested at home. So we are skipping it here.

Stay Informed. Stay Safe!

Ice-creams are adulterated by using non-standard or inferior ingredients. The additives used in ice cream are:-

• Low quality, cheaper and unhealthy (rather more harmful) sweeteners like Corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, glucose syrups, etc.
• Unhealthy gums added to increase the thickness of ice cream, impart a creamy texture, delay melting time due to added stickiness, and increased shelf life.
• Detergents or washing powder to improve smoothness and induce frothing thereby adding to the volume.
• Low-grade or non-food colors.
• Unhealthy hydrogenated fats like vanaspati or dalda.
• Using lesser than mandated amount of milk solids and non-fat milk solids.

Back to the discussion on frozen desserts vs ice cream. As per regulations in India, to be classified as ice cream, the product should contain at least 10% milk fats. Does that mean frozen desserts does not have milk (just like the Amul's campaign will want you to believe)?

• Amul: Roasted Almond Milk Solids, sugar, flavours, emulsifiers, and stabilizers
• Kwality Walls: Kesar Pista Milk Solids, sugar, flavours, emulsifiers, stabilizers, edible vegetable fats, and glucose syrup
• Nandini: Mango Milk Solids, sugar, flavours, emulsifiers, stabilizers, and milk
• Nandini: Cassatta Milk Solids, sugar, flavours, emulsifiers, stabilizers, and glucose syrup

The question, which is still unanswered is if both have milk, which one is better, the one with milk fat or the one with vegetable fat. Am not qualified to answer this. As a matter of preference, I would prefer milk fats. However, Unilever has tried to shed light on this aspect through an educational campaign countering Amul's campaign. You can read the Kwality wall campaign here.

Though the link addresses the question about the presence of milk in frozen desserts and why they think using vegetable fat is healthier than using milk fats. The article is still biased on a few counts, viz:-

• It gives the example of countries like Indonesia which do not differentiate between frozen desserts and ice creams, but it does not talk about countries like the US, which do.
• It does not talk about the cost dynamics of vegetable fats vs milk fats (vegetable fats costs less than half of milk fats).

Another thing you might have noticed (while reading the labels above) is that none of the company gives actual percentages of different ingredients. Does the non-solid milk fats constitute 5% or 50% of the product?

Given that the US Department of agriculture mandates a minimum of 10% milk fats and 6% non-milk fats for a product to be classified as ice cream, my best guess is that both ice creams and frozen desserts being sold in your neighbourhood may not contain more than 20% of milk in total (including solid and non-solid milk fats). 

Thus, if you are one of those parents who happily give ice creams to their kids since it has milk, you will be better off making it at home than choosing one from the shelf.

Stay Informed. Stay Safe!

You can carry out these simple tests at your home to detect the presence of specific adulterants in milk.

Pour a drop of milk on a smooth and tilted surface. The milk drop will flow slowly leaving behind a white trail. Adulterated milk will flow freely, and won't leave its mark. 

Mix a small quantity of milk along with twice the amount of water. Bring this mixture to a boil and add a couple of drops of tincture of iodine when the mixture cools down. Hints of blue colour in the mixture tell us that the milk is adulterated with starch.

Stay Informed. Stay Safe!

Honey is often adulterated with other low-cost sweeteners like corn syrup, glucose, maple syrup etc. Addition of these sugars leads to following changes in the fundamental properties of honey.

• It reduces the viscosity of honey. Naturally thick honey can now stretch easily.
• It prevents honey from solidifying. Natural honey has a tendency to solidify with age and drop in temperature. Addition of artificial sugars allows honey to stay in a liquid state for a long duration of time.

Honey is extracted from cells of a beehive. If some of the cells in the beehive are not adequately covered with wax, it allows for a higher content of water in the extracted honey. Good quality honey will have very less amount of water content. 

Thankfully, it is easy to detect adulteration in honey. Following simple tests can be carried out at home to assess the quality of honey.

• Dissolution in Water: Add a small amount of honey to water. Pure honey will not dissolve easily. Sugar additives like fructose and glucose will dissolve quickly.
• Flame Test: Pure honey is combustible. Take a matchstick and light it. Now, drop a little honey on the unburnt part of the stick. Let the flame reach this part. If the flame extinguishes, it is because of high water content in the honey.
• Thickness Test: Place a little amount of honey on a bread slice. If the honey is pure, the bread slice will remain hard. If it becomes soggy, honey is not pure.
• Egg Yolk Test: Take an egg yolk. Add a little honey and beat them together. The colour of yolk will change as if the yolk is cooked. This shows honey is pure.
• Froth Test: Add a little amount of water to honey. Follow it up by adding a spoonful of vinegar. Stir it. If the solution gets bubbles, honey is adulterated.
• Stickiness Test: Rub a drop of honey between your fingers. Pure honey is not sticky. If your fingers feel sticky, it's probably other sugars.

Last but most important, when you go shopping for honey, do read the label. Most commercial brands will show the amount of fructose corn syrup/glucose/added sugars on the label (somewhere in small print). Don't go by price; buy the one with the least quantity of additive.

The commonly used adulterants in case of coffee are chicory, caramel and date seeds. These are generally mixed with the coffee beans before grinding. Once the mixture is ground, it is tough to find out the presence of any of these just by way of visual inspection. However, all these adulterants have different properties from coffee beans, and one can rely on these properties to determine the quality of the coffee.

One can find the presence of adulterants in coffee by following tests:

Take a little coffee and squeeze it between your fingers. If it forms a cake-like coherent mass, it is adulterated with chicory. This is because Coffee grains are hard and large; they do not stick together. The grains of chicory, however, are small and soft and tend to stick to each other. So, if the grains in your coffee like to stick together, it's probably not coffee.

Place a pinch of coffee powder on a plate. Put a drop of water on it. If it absorbs the water readily and becomes soft, it contains chicory. If it takes time to absorb water and remains hard, it is coffee.

Take a transparent glass. Fill it with water. Drop a pinch of coffee powder on it gently.

• If the powder floats for some time before sinking, it is coffee.
• If the powder sinks quickly, it is chicory or some other seed.
• If it readily diffuses brownish or yellowish colour, it contains Caramel or Chicory.

What, do you think, people, drink more - tea or coffee?

We answered that in our post on adulteration in tea leaves. Here is a different question to wit you. Between a tea lover and a coffee lover, who is likely to drink more number of cups of her favourite drink on any given day? How many?

The answer lies in the following cues:

• Turkey tops the list in largest per capita consumption of tea at 3.15kg
• Finland tops the list in largest per capita consumption of coffee at 12kg

Enjoy your cup of Coffee or Tea.

Stay Informed. Stay Safe!

• Plumbago (lead) - same stuff which is used to make pencil leads
• Potassium Blue - a blue colour pigment, used in photography
• Colouring agents like Bismark brown or indigo

It is easy to check for additives in tea if they are water-soluble. The techniques listed below may help identify some non-soluble additives too but may not be successful all the time. 

Here they go:

1. Take a glass of water. Add a spoon full of tea leaves to it. In case there is no water-soluble additive, the water will stay clear. If the water turns slightly brown or if tea leaves emit colour into the water, there is an additive.
2. Take a clean tissue paper and place a few tea leaves on it. Add a few drops of water, wait for it to dry out. Now remove the tea leaves and observe the tissue paper under sunlight. Presence of stains or oily marks indicates adulteration.

Coming back to the trivia. The answer is Turkey

An average person in Turkey drinks almost ten times more tea than an average Indian. Next time you grab your cup of tea, think of the Turkish guy and don't feel guilty.

An interesting fact. Did you know that all varieties/brands of tea may have iron filings in it?