Welcome to Earth and Health Care Council
Welcome to Earth and Health Care Council
Food is medicine. Our ancestors used country sugar but today we renounced the way of ancestors and using white sugar. But now-a-days, most of the people knows that the white sugar contain chemicals. So they move on to the food habit of ancestors and start to use country sugar. Country sugar contains lime stone, calcium and it have the power to control diabetes mellitus. Recently, Food Safety officers inspect the factories and they came to know that some chemicals are added in country sugar. For changing the country sugar into white colour, they add the chemical sodium hydro sulphate in large quantities and for increasing the weight, they add the chemical super phosphate, gypsum and white sugar. With these, they add soap particles to remove the filth. Thus, adulterated country sugar causes so many effects to our body. This inclusion of such chemicals in the food is prohibited under the Food Safety and Standards Ordinance 2011. The food without chemicals is a fundamental right of every individual under Article 21 of the constitution. It is the duty of our government to implement this.
How can we detect this?
If the brown colour is changed into pale yellow and if you taste it first the taste will sweet and finally the taste will salty. If you feel this, it was adulterated and you can sent this to laboratory for testing.
What are the consequences?
Continuously, if you consume the food which contains sodium hydro sulphate it will affect the liver and pancreas and cause diabetes and changes in cells that finally leads to cancer and infertility.
How can we prevent this?
1. As we are consumers, should not give importance to colours and look the thing which is adulterated or not and also instruct the shop keeper to add chemicals within the limits prescribed by law. If you feel it is adulterated, you send information about this to food safety officers and send the country sugar to laboratory for testing. If the test is found to be positive, send the results to food safety officers through whatsapp or E-mail and urge them to take action.
2. Sellers don’t do this for profit. If possible, avoid chemicals if not, according to law add 40 ppm of sodium hydro sulphate.
3. The officers of Food Safety Department of Government of Tamil Nadu should carry out systematic inspections to ensure that such chemicals do not exceed the prescribed limits and the sale of sugar and jaggery is contaminated and also strict action is taken against the manufacturers who play the lives of the people and create awareness among the people, traders and manufacturers.
Published in the public interest by Earth & Health Care Council.