JSS3 Civic Education Lesson Note on Food Contamination or Adulteration

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Food contamination/Adulteration

Food contamination refers to foods that are spoiled or tainted because they either contain microorganisms such as bacteria or parasites or toxic substances that make them unfit for consumption. Food contamination also refers to the presence in food of harmful chemicals and microorganisms which can cause consumer illness. Anyone caught selling contaminated food substances and the production of adulterated food substances will be punished according to the law of the nation. The goods will be seized by drug law and enforcement agent.

Description of Food Contamination

Food contamination can be microbial or environmental, with the former being more common.

1. Environmental contaminants that can enter the food supply chain include pesticides, heavy metals, and other chemical agents.
2. Many opportunities exist for food to become contaminated as it is produced and distributed. To start with, bacteria are present in the animal raised for food. Meat and poultry can become contaminated during slaughter through cross contamination from intestinal fecal matter.

• Similarly, fresh fruits and vegetables can be contaminated if they are washed using water contaminated with animal manure or human sewage.

1. During food processing, contamination is also possible from infected food handlers. Lastly, poor hygiene in the home is also a factor.

Food Adulteration

Adulteration is a legal term meaning that a food product fails to meet federal or state standards. Adulteration is addition of a non food item to increase the weight or quantity of the food item in raw form or prepared form, which may result in the loss of actual quality of food item. In other words, adulteration of food means the addition of something that isn’t food into a food product, in order to be able to get more products to sell at less cost. Adulterated food is impure, unsafe, or unwholesome food. A good example was the addition of melamine into milk, by a factory in China. The melamine resembled milk protein closely enough that the milk was able to pass inspection, yet it also proved to be toxic, causing a number of deaths. Adding sawdust to ground meat would be another example.

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