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3rd/4th Sem Food Safety & Quality Notes

Food Contaminants & Adulterants

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Last updated: 12 July 2023

Food Contaminants

A contaminant is any physical, chemical or biological entity that is potentially undesirable for the human health. Contaminants are the substances which are not intentionally added to food items, but there are probable situations where the contaminants come in contact with a food item.

Food contaminants include bacteria, parasites and toxic residues.

Food Contamination

Food contamination is anything in food that reduces the safety or quality and is not supposed to be there. Food may be contaminated intentionally or accidentally.

Food Adulteration

Food adulteration is the process in which the quality of food is lowered either by the addition of inferior quality material or by extraction of the valuable ingredient. It not only includes the intentional addition or substitution of the substances but biological and chemical contamination during the period of growth, storage, processing, transport and distribution of the food products, is also responsible for the lowering or degradation of the quality of food products. Adulterants are those substances which are used for making the food products unsafe for human consumption.

Adulterants

An adulterant is a chemical which acts as a contaminant when combined with other substances.

Examples:

Ice Cream: Washing powder is regularly added to add volume to ice cream.

Tumeric, Coriander powder, Red Chilies:
Tumeric is mixed with metanil yellow, coloured chalk powder, aniline dyes; wood powder is added to both turmeric and coriander, while red chillies are mixed with Red colour dye, Sudan Red III colour and brick dust. Etc.

 

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Syllabus BHM207

01 Basic Introduction to Food Safety, Food Hazards & Risks, Contaminants and Food Hygiene

02 Micro-organisms in Food

  1. General characteristics of Micro-Organisms based on their occurrence and structure.
  2. Factors affecting their growth in food (intrinsic and extrinsic)
  3. Common food-borne micro-organisms:
    1. Bacteria (spores/capsules)
    2. Fungi
    3. Viruses
    4. Parasites

03 Food Spoilage & Food Preservation

  1. Types & Causes of spoilage
  2. Sources of contamination
  3. Spoilage of different products (milk and milk products, cereals and cereal products, meat, eggs, fruits and vegetables, canned products)
  4. Basic principles of food preservation
  5. Methods of preservation (High Temperature, Low Temperature, Drying, Preservatives & Irradiation)

04 Beneficial Role of Micro-organisms

  1. Fermentation & Role of lactic acid bacteria
  2. Fermentation in Foods (Dairy foods, vegetable, Indian foods, Bakery products and alcoholic beverages)
  3. Miscellaneous (Vinegar & anti-biotics)

05 Food-borne Diseases

  1. Types (Infections and intoxications)
  2. Common diseases caused by foodborne pathogens
  3. Preventive measures

06 Food Additives

  1. Introduction
  2. Types (Preservatives, anti-oxidants, sweeteners, food colours and flavours, stabilizers and emulsifiers)

07 Food Contaminants & Adulterants

  1. Introduction to Food Standards
  2. Types of Food contaminants (Pesticide residues, bacterial toxins mycotoxins, seafood toxins, metallic contaminants, residues from packaging material)
  3. Common adulterants in food
  4. Method of their detection (basic principle)

08 Food Laws and Regulations

  1. National – PFA Essential Commodités Act (FPO, MPO etc.)
  2. International – Codex Alimentarius, ISO
  3. Regulatory Agencies – WTO
  4. Consumer Protection Act

09 Quality Assurance

  1. Introduction to Concept of TQM, GMP and Risk Assessment
  2. Relevance of Microbiological standards for food safety
  3. HACCP (Basic Principle and implementation)

10 Hygiene and Sanitation in Food Sector

  1. General Principles of Food Hygiene
  2. GHP for commodities, equipment, work area and personnel
  3. Cleaning and disinfection (Methods and agents commonly used in the hospitality industry)
  4. Safety aspects of processing water (uses & standards)
  5. Waste Water & Waste disposal

11 Recent Concerns

  1. Emerging pathogens
  2. Genetically modified foods
  3. Food labelling
  4. Newer trends in food packaging and technology
  5. BSE (Bovine Serum Encephthalopathy)