Food adulteration in India is not an episodic scandal. It is a structural public health failure with economic drivers, regulatory blind spots, and serious long-term consequences. Recent official and scientific findings show that adulteration has migrated from traditional markets into processed and semi-processed food, and that the harms now extend well beyond acute food-borne illness to chronic toxic exposures. The policy response must move from episodic raids to a system redesign that combines targeted enforcement, calibrated laboratory capacity, traceable value chains, and consumer empowerment.
Food adulteration takes many forms. Some are economical and aimed at increasing weight or shelf life. Others are toxic, involving industrial dyes and heavy-metal pigments. Peer-reviewed field surveys collected across South Asia have shown that turmeric, a ubiquitous spice in Indian kitchens, has been adulterated with lead chromate, producing lead concentrations that can result in clinically significant increases in blood lead levels in children. Recent systematic testing and reviews of field samples show that milk is frequently diluted with water and contaminated with detergent, urea and other non-nutritive substances to mask dilution and extend shelf life.
Adulteration is reported in wholesale bazaars, small retail shops, and in informal dairy and roadside food networks. High-value spices, milk, paneer and edible oils are repeatedly flagged in testing and enforcement actions. Media and official press releases in 2024–25 documented multiple enforcement seizures of spurious paneer, sauces and packaged foods, illustrating that adulteration circulates through both formal supply chains and informal distribution networks.
Why has adulteration persisted despite legal instruments and a Central regulator? The answer is threefold. First, small producers and traders operate with thin margins and adulteration raises short-run profitability. Second, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and state food-safety authorities may have expanded their testing network but laboratory infrastructure and trained human resources remain inadequate. Third, detection technology and incentives for detection have lagged behind fraudsters. For years, many tests relied on gross chemical assays that could miss modern forms of adulteration. More recent scientific work has deployed spectroscopic and portable sensor technology but these approaches are not yet deployed widely in the field.
Policy must confront food adulteration across the entire chain, from production to consumption, rather than through episodic raids. High-risk commodities such as spices, milk, and edible oils require targeted supply-chain interventions that reward compliance. Certified chain-of-custody systems, batch-level testing for contaminants like heavy metals, and procurement preferences for traceable producers can shift incentives toward safety.
Detection and enforcement must be redesigned to match the scale of the problem. Decentralised testing capacity and the use of validated portable kits and rapid field assays should be expanded among state food-safety officers and cooperative institutions. Laboratory accreditation and integration with national data portals are essential to convert testing into actionable intelligence. Enforcement should be predictable and transparent, with public disclosure of sample results, penalties calibrated to market power and repeat violations, and criminal prosecution reserved for deliberate, toxic adulteration.
Equally important is strengthening demand-side accountability. Clear labelling, credible certification marks, and consumer-facing information can realign market behaviour, while complaint mechanisms should directly feed into risk-based inspections and surveillance. These reforms require political commitment and modest public investment. Above all, data transparency must be non-negotiable.
Food adulteration sits at the intersection of economics, technology, and public health. Only a systemic policy response can prevent unsafe food consumption.
Amal Chandra is a policy analyst and columnist
