Food is the basic need of every human being and it provides our body with all the nutrients, which play an important role in the development and maintenance of the body, but when food and drink items are adulterated, it is very harmful to our body. You may not know that from the fruits and vegetables that come to your home to milk and ghee, there is a lot of adulteration, due to which you can get many types of terrible diseases. 30 percent of the people of Bathinda district are eating adulterated food, due to which their health is being adversely affected. Along with this, it is giving rise to many serious diseases. The Food Safety Wing of the Health Department of the Punjab Government seems to be lax in tightening the reins on those who poison the residents of the state through adulteration. RTI Under the last 10 years of data, it has been revealed that in the name of punishing adulterers, the District Health Officer, Inspector and team in the Health Department are spreading the illusion that samples are being collected from food shops only during festivals and in the name of action, food is being supplied. The video of dirt, rotten meat and large-scale adulteration in a factory making momos and spring rolls in Mohali is a clear example of the fearless poisoning of the state’s residents through food products by adulterers in the state.
RTI. Data from 2014 to 2024 found in various cases registered against adulterers in 13 different districts of Punjab, only a few adulterers have been brought to their due punishment in the name of food supply. RTI According to the data, in the last ten years, 17 adulterers have been brought to justice in Patiala, 11 in Ludhiana, 10 in Jalandhar, 2 in Amritsar, 0 in Moga, 0 in Sri Muktsar Sahib, 21 in Barnala, no record in Kapurthala, 29 in Mohali, 1 in Mansa, no record in Sri Fatehgarh Sahib, 8 in Bathinda and only 2 in Ferozepur district. The seriousness of the Health Department towards this widespread adulteration in the form of poison can be gauged from the fact that when the Director Health Department, Chandigarh, was given an RTI regarding the acquisition of these data, he did not have these data. In Punjab, where the state government is issuing strict orders to the Punjab Police to eradicate the menace of drugs, strict instructions should be issued to the officials of the Food Safety Wing of the Health Department and the police to prevent the adulteration of poison served to the people of the state.
How is adulteration done
According to experts, argemone oil is mixed in mustard oil. While yellow turmeric flour is mixed in chickpea and arhar pulses. Similarly, talcum powder is added to make the pulses shiny. Brick powder is added to red chillies. Big businessmen get a lot of profit from this. However, even at the lower level, adulterated ingredients are made available at cheap prices in shops, which makes the traders a lot of profit. During the festive season, adulterated khoya flour, palm oil, synthetic milk, arrowroot, potato, sweet potato, chestnut flour and sugar are used to make fake khoya. Not only this, chemicals are also used to change the color of khoya.
