Adulteration, that’s the name of the game

Whenever any festival season arrives, the electronic media goes wild revealing the huge amount of adulteration that goes on all around us. We see raids conducted on godowns where adulterating materials are stored, we see panic stricken workers trying to hide their faces and we see van loads of the material being carted away. We heave a sigh of relief but that is short-lived because, come next festival season, the videos come alive – with new locations. It’s a vicious circle.
As is well known, we Indians have been endowed with the sweet tooth and, while diabetics hesitate to eat sweets even though their mouths would water at the sight of the delicacies, thy have to exercise utmost control in spite of the temptations.
Of course there are those who manage to satisfy their urge by resorting to falsehood and cut a sorry figure when caught out by family members like the wife or the ever vigilant daughter-in-law or the grandchildren. That is the essence of life, to always want that which is forbidden.
We were talking about adulteration – we are well aware of practices like adding water to milk and vanaspati to butter and ghee. These are age-old traditions like adding stone particles to grains of cereals like wheat and rice. The different methods of adulteration vary from place to place and from one product to another.
Artificial ripening of mangoes and bananas is not new to us. Increasing the size of grapes by the use of chemicals is also common like the recycling of used garam masala ingredients like lawang, elaichi, and dal-chini and substituting dry papaya seeds in-lieu of black pepper – such adulteration have lost their novelty.
Long time back, there was a tremendous ruckus over the adulteration of mustard oil – at one point of time, it had totally vanished from the market! It has, since, reappeared. Coloring agents used in making sweets more attractive involves chemicals that are harmful to the body. Users are fully aware of these factors. But, we do not discourage use of such products.
The reason of why adulteration prospers in the country can be attributed to the inadequate number of staff in the policing agencies – there are too few inspectors and too many adulterators and the punishment is insignificant. When law can be bought and when there are invisible hands of those in power at work behind the scenes, we have to live with such malpractices.
The only way to avoid consuming adulterated sweets is to make them at home as was the custom in the bygone days when elder women of the family would get together to make the gulab jamuns and pedhas and get them ready before the start of the festivities. Alas, those days are now history because today is all about nuclear families where elders are not supposed to interfere. Enjoying festivals today is all about packaging – the contents are immaterial.