A Comparative Study to Assess the Knowledge Regarding Food Adulteration, its Detection and to Create Awareness among Homemakers Regarding Food Safety Standards in Selected Rural and Urban Community of Drug District, Chhattisgarh

Abstract

Health is wealth; happiness lies in the health of man. Good health helps to develop charm, grace and happy mind. Florence Nightingale recognizes the radically changed outcomes by addressing clean water, nourishing food, light and fresh air. Good nutritive food plays very vital role in maintaining proper health and also helps in prevention and cure of diseases. All body functions like metabolic, hormonal, mental, physical or chemical cannot be performed by the body without nutritive food. For healthy mind, soul or psyche food itself needs to be healthy. Access to good quality food has been man's main endeavor from the earliest days of human existence. Food adulteration is the most dangerous problem related to nutrition. Adulteration can be defined as the inclusion of constituents whose presence is prohibited by regulation, custom and practice or making impure by adding inferior or less desirable materials or elements in the food. Food adulteration can be classified as intentional, unintentional or incidental. Intentional adulteration is the act of adding, removing substances to food and knowingly altering the existing natural properties of food. Unintentional adulteration is not willful act; it may be due to ignorance, and lack of proper facilities like dropping of rodents, larva in food. The most common practice is the intentional addition of an adulterant to a food to increase the food’s value through deception. Consumers are cheated by adulterated foods due to lack of knowledge regarding quality of food. Most of them are also ignorant about the consumer protection acts and remain recessive for taking action against such activities prevalent in the society, which gives opportunities to the fraudulent traders and retailers.