Question

Define economic adulteration and esthetic adulteration?

Describe an example food of each type.

Answer 1

Economic adulteration: The economic adulteration may be defined as “fraudulent, intentional substitution or addition of a substance in a product to increase its economic value of the product with the reduced cost of production.

Simply, This adulteration is resulted by an addition of an inferior substance to make product superior.

Ex: Olive oil available in the market states it is 100% pure, but it sometimes found to be adultered with soy bean oil which is far cheaper than olive oil. Honey adultered with other undeclared added sugars so the product is not pure honey. In this way, the additional or substituting material may reduce the cost of production in economic adulteration.

Aesthetic adulteration:  Aesthetic adulteration could be defined addition of filthy, putrid, or decomposed substance to the food. This generally resulted by indirect ways of an addition of contaminants may be because of poor sanitary or management practices.

Ex: Cool drinks contaminated with pesticides, Noodles with reported led content etc.

Due to poor management practices, the food available in the market may be non-intentionally contaminated with pathogens, rodents, or the food may be decomposed, come under aesthetic adulteration.