With the arrival of the festive season, the demand for sweets, milk, mawa, and paneer witnesses a massive surge across households. Taking advantage of this sudden gap between supply and demand, unscrupulous vendors manufacture synthetic paneer, adulterated mawa, and toxic milk on a large scale. Although food safety authorities across multiple states have seized and destroyed hundreds of tonnes of fake dairy products in recent enforcement drives, illicit items continue to find their way into markets through illegal channels. Consuming these compromised food products poses alarming hazards to human health.
Health Consequences of Adulterated Milk and Mawa
Dr Mohsin Wali, a renowned cardiologist at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, highlighted that the current extent of adulteration in everyday items like paneer, milk, mawa, and spices such as red chilli powder is terrifying. Regular consumption of these adulterated food items inflicts serious harm on the body. According to Dr Mohsin Wali, suppliers commonly mix starch, detergent, and refined flour (maida) into milk to artificially increase its volume. When these chemicals and unnatural agents enter the digestive tract, they cause severe internal damage.
Dr Mohsin Wali warned that consuming adulterated milk or products derived from it leads to acute stomach pain, severe dehydration, allergic reactions, typhoid, and high fever. Furthermore, prolonged exposure to these synthetic and chemically contaminated products causes irreversible damage to vital organs such as the liver and kidneys. He described commercial adulteration as a grave crime and moral failure that is being carried out openly in society today.
Risks of Growing Dependency on Packaged Foods
Modern lifestyle shifts have led to a heavy reliance on packaged food items in most urban households, replacing traditional methods of verifying food purity. Dr Mohsin Wali pointed out that consumers cannot blindly trust packaged items available in stores because there is rarely any guarantee regarding the authenticity of the ingredients inside. The traditional practices of ensuring pure milk and homemade dairy items have largely vanished from daily routines. Consequently, hidden contaminants inside processed packaged foods continuously deteriorate public health.
Simple Home Tests to Identify Fake Paneer and Milk
Ensuring that dairy products brought into the home are pure is essential before consumption. Health experts emphasize that consumers must be aware of what they are eating. Dr BP Tyagi shared simple and effective techniques that allow anyone to test the authenticity of milk and paneer right in their kitchen through a basic two-step method during the peak festive season.
According to Dr BP Tyagi, one can test milk or paneer by applying a few drops of iodine solution to the sample. If the color of the milk or paneer turns black or dark blue upon contact with iodine, it confirms the presence of adulterants like starch or refined flour. Pure dairy items show no such dramatic color change when iodine is added.
Verifying the Purity of Roasted Gram and Other Essentials
Besides dairy items, the purity of other festive food items like roasted gram (bhuna chana) can also be tested easily. Dr BP Tyagi explained that when authentic roasted gram is pressed between fingers, it retains its structure, whereas adulterated gram easily crumbles into powder upon light rubbing.
Additionally, a simple water immersion test can determine the quality of roasted gram. Placing the gram in a container filled with water will cause genuine, unadulterated gram to sink directly to the bottom. If the gram floats on the water's surface, it indicates that the item is fake or chemically treated. Applying these quick testing methods helps protect families from the dangerous health consequences of adulterated food.
