Sago To Jaggery: How To Check Adulteration In Kitchen Ingredients

Various adulterated goods are sold in the market. So, one should be more careful while buying food items. Such items are not considered suitable for health, as they may cause issues for your overall well-being. Are you also thinking of checking these food items at home before consuming them? If so, we’ll tell you a few ways through which many food items can be tested. These methods can determine whether or not what you are eating is natural.

Sugar

Sometimes, you may get a difference in the sweetness of the sugar. This happens because of its adulteration, and the most common adulterant is chalk powder. To check the purity of sugar:

• Dissolve 10 grams of sugar in a glass of water and let it settle. If there is chalk, it will settle at the bottom.
• Also, try putting sugar in half a cup of hot water. If it does not dissolve completely, then that sugar is adulterated.

Lentils

• Grind the lentils coarsely and put this powder in hot water. If the colour changes to bright yellow in the water, it is an artificial colour.
• In addition, mix one teaspoon of water in a teaspoon of lentils and add a few drops of hydrochloric acid. After mixing it, check if the colour turns pink; it is adulterated with lead chromate colour. 
• If the colour turns dark red, there is an adulteration of metanil colour.

Paneer

To check if there’s any adulteration in the paneer:

• Try mashing a small piece of paneer in your hands.
• If it begins to fall apart, the paneer is adulterated.
• Not only this, the adulterated paneer is tighter, and its texture looks like rubber.

Jaggery

Jaggery is made from sugarcane juice, so its natural colour is dark red or brown when it is ready. Therefore, even after cooking, its colour does not change much. However, there are many colours of jaggery available in the market these days, including white, light yellow or bright red. Hence to check its purity:

• Put jaggery in water. If it's adulterated, the substances will settle down in the water
• If it’s pure, it will dissolve completely in water.

Sago or sabudana

While fasting, we make various sabudana recipes. Not only this but sago is also used to make papad or khichdi. However, the adulterated variety may come mixed with sand or talcum powder. 

• Therefore, to check its purity, you need to burn a bit of it. 
• Pure sago will leave no ash, while the adulterated sago will burn to ash.