Research Article Consumers' Knowledge of Food Adulteration ...

Research ArticleConsumersrsquo Knowledge of Food Adulteration and CommonlyUsed Methods of Detection

Edward Ken Essuman 12 Ernest Teye 1 Rosemond Godbless Dadzie 1

and Livingstone K Sam-Amoah 1

1University of Cape Coast School of Agriculture Department of Agricultural EngineeringFood and Drugs Integrity Research Group Cape Coast Ghana2University of Health and Allied Sciences School of Allied Health Sciences Department of Nutrition and Dietetics Ho Ghana

Correspondence should be addressed to EdwardKen Essuman eedwardkengmailcom and Ernest Teye ernestteyeuccedugh

Received 8 October 2021 Revised 18 January 2022 Accepted 16 April 2022 Published 26 April 2022

Academic Editor Antimo Di Maro

Copyright copy 2022 Edward Ken Essuman et al is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons AttributionLicense which permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work isproperly cited

Food adulteration has become a threat to many countries as most individuals have consumed food items without knowing that ithas been adulterated leaving the consumer with various ailments is study identifies the degree of adulteration in somecommonly used food items bought by consumers and the means of detection e study comprised 384 women who patronizedvarious food items for food preparationey were asked if they have come into contact with adulterated food products before andto illustrate how they detect if a food item is adulterated From the findings of this study the respondents indicated that they willnot consume a food item if they get to know that it has been adulterated and 505 indicated that they have come into contactwith adulterated food during preparing food Various reasons were given by the respondents why they will not consumeadulterated food and the reasons included the following the foodmay be dangerous to consume and not healthy for consumptionand can cause stomach disorders Few numbers (11 out of 384) of the respondents also indicated that they will still go ahead andconsume adulterated food items since not all adulterants are toxic Food items that are prone to adulteration as mentioned by therespondent included groundnut paste chilli pepper tomato powder and honey with their adulterants ranging from flour colourSudan IV dye chalk powder foam cola nut powder avocado pear seed powder and many more Means of detecting the presenceof adulterants as indicated by the respondent were sensory and textural characteristics due to the cost involved in the use of otheradvanced techniques

1 Introduction

Gone were the days when there was little or no incidence offood fraud when people used to live in small groups andpractised subsistence farming just to feed themselvesNevertheless with the increase in population urbanizationand demand for more convenient available and ready-to-serve food products the temptation of adulteration mostlyduring the scarcity of food and the possibility of econom-ically motivated profit has increased e final target of suchmisconduct is mostly the consumer who unknowingly buysand consumes these foods and may suffer from health-re-lated issues According to Giannakas [1] and UK National

Food Crime Unit [2] widespread issues of food adulterationmay decrease consumersrsquo confidence in food labelling policyand this will in turn build financial and reputational damageto firms and the food industry

Despite the increasing awareness of the need to knowand combat food deceit little has been done to knowconsumersrsquo knowledge and perceptions of food adulterationWhile most research studies focus on food hygiene there is alack of information about consumersrsquo knowledge regardingfood adulteration ere is a significant gap in the empiricalevidence to know consumersrsquo knowledge of food adulter-ation and how this knowledge has influenced their foodchoice e awareness of consumers will play an important

HindawiJournal of Food QualityVolume 2022 Article ID 2421050 10 pageshttpsdoiorg10115520222421050

role in preventing food adulteration [3] since nowadays thepractice of food adulteration is common in our food chain

e substances usually termed adulterants could bechemicals or any material of inferior quality or being uselesswhich are not to be present in the food and may be in-tentionally added to reduce manufacturing costs or for acruel purpose [4] Some of the common substances oradulterants used may include wood saving other plantsseeds of similar colour in powdery form sand marbles foodcolour and filth that have been found in the herbs and spicescategory of food products Low-priced edible and nonedibleoils are generally used for adulterating high-grade oil such asextra virgin olive oil

Adulteration of food is usually done through mixingsubstituting abstracting and concealing the quality of thefood product is activity reduces the quality of the foodsubstance and its consumption may be fatal to the health ofthe consumer [5ndash7] In other instances a nonfood substanceis intentionally added to a food product to improve theappearance or the outcome of the product An example is theaddition of Sudan IV dye to palm oil to bring out the redcolour even though the use of Sudan IV dye as a foodadditive has been banned Other food items and theircommon adulterants have also been reported including theadulteration of red wine with the juice of bilberries sugarwith chalk powder honey with cane sugar chilli powderwith brick powder and black pepper with papaya seed [3]e brain behind these malpractices is mainly for economicgain and not necessarily to improve the nutritive quality ofthe food product e health of the consumer who is in-nocent about the content of the food to be consumed istherefore at stake However not all adulterants are harmfulto human health An example is the addition of water to cowmilk although this must be made known to the consumer orbe written on the label

At this present time the traceability of food is restrictedto the quality of each processorrsquos documentation Whenconsumers have doubt or suspected fraud in a particularfood product there is no standardized analysis available todiscriminate a good product from an adulterated one Al-though there may be basic screening tests for determiningadulteration there is no empirical evidence of this practiceAgain despite the advancement in technology in the de-veloped world there is little or lack of technology in thedeveloping countries to detect fake and adulterated foodproducts Nevertheless detection of adulterants in fooditems is necessary to assess the authenticity and to protectconsumers against fraudulent activities e present studyaims to evaluate consumersrsquo knowledge and determine thedegree of contamination in some commonly used food itemsbought by consumers and the means of detection of theadulterant

2 Materials and Methods

21 Selection of Respondents and Sample Size Determinatione study was conducted in Ho of the Volta Region ofGhana e target populations were women above the age of18 years e respondents were either housewives or

working In this study a sample size of 384 was estimatedusing the RAOSOFT sample size calculator [8] e samplesize was calculated assuming a confidence level of 95 a 5margin of error and a response distribution of 50 esample size n and the margin of error E are given by

X Zc

1001113874 1113875

2r(100 minus r)

n Nx

((N minus 1)E + x)

E Sqrt(N minus n)x

n(N minus 1)1113890 1113891

(1)

where N denotes the population size n denotes the samplesize r denotes the fraction of the response of the interestedgroup E denotes the margin of error and Z(c100) is thecritical value for the confidence level c

Probability sampling was used in this study to ensure agood representation of the population A simple randomsample of clusters was employed in selecting participantsfrom the population

22 Data Collection Tools and Procedures A pretestedquestionnaire was designed for data collection regardingrespondentsrsquo knowledge of food adulteration adulterantsnormally used to adulterate food items and the means ofdetection at the household level Participants were providedwith all necessary consent forms to read and fill uponagreement to participate in the study e questionnaireswere effectively administered and collected as the re-searchers personally took them to the participants andadministered them one-on-one translating the content ofthe questions to people who could not read or understandthem

23 Data Analysis e data obtained from the study wereanalysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences soft-ware (SPSS) version 220 [9] Descriptive statistics were usedto summarize the processed data into frequencies andpercentages using tables

3 Results

31 Respondentsrsquo Sociodemographic Characteristics andKnowledge of Food Adulteration e study was sorted todetermine respondentsrsquo knowledge about food adulterationand their contact with an adulterated food product eresults of the study show that the majority (411) of therespondents were between the ages of 18 and 35 as shown inTable 1 Very few of the participants were above the age of 55years ose who were single formed the majority (516)and 31 were cohabiting In terms of the educationalbackground of the respondents 159 had completedmiddle school with 156 having no formal education Mostof the respondents 378 were in tertiary education or hadcompleted A greater part of the respondents were Christians(888) and 13 belonged to other forms of religion e

2 Journal of Food Quality

bulk of the respondents were Ewes (565) due to the chosenstudy area

Knowledge about food adulteration was high (274714) and a greater part of the respondents had knownabout food adulteration for more than one year (Table 2)More than half of the respondents (661) thought that if theprice of a food product is lower than expected or too good tobe true or the quantity is more than expected the foodproduct might have been adulterated

A little over 50 of the respondents said they havebought food products and have suspected adulteration asshown in Table 3 Besides having physical contact with anadulterated food product 474 have heard about othersubstances that are being used to adulterate food Amajority of the respondents (922) interviewed said theyare not willing to purchase a food product if they know it isadulterated in any form Surprisingly 78 of the re-spondents said they will go ahead and buy the adulteratedfood product Out of the 384 respondents 199 gavereasons for their choice of answers when interviewed(Table 4)

irty (30) of the respondents claimed that they will buyan adulterated food product even if they are certain it isadulterated while 347 said they will not buy Table 4 rep-resents the reasons behind the decision made by the re-spondents Out of the 30 respondents who said they will buyan adulterated food product 11 gave out the followingreasons not all adulterated food is harmful the food productis still needed in the diet and it might serve as a preservativeand lastly as evidence of food adulteration Additionally outof the 354 respondents who said they will not buy

adulterated food 188 of them gave reasons for their decisionas shown in Table 4 A majority of the respondents (96)claimed that it is very dangerous to consume an adulteratedfood product

32 CommonAdulterated Food Items e respondents wereasked to name any food product they have bought andrealized it was or had been adulterated e 194 (505)respondents as shown in Table 3 who attested to the fact thatthey have purchased food products and realized it was or hadbeen adulterated mentioned groundnut paste powderedchilli pepper tomato paste tomato powder honey palm oilsugar and beef as some of the food products prone toadulteration (Table 5) According to the respondentsinterviewed the food products that are most prone toadulteration are powdered chilli pepper followed bygroundnut paste honey and palm oil e adulterantsmostly used to adulterate powdered chilli pepper groundnutpaste honey and palm oil are food colour kokonte flour(dried milled cassava) burnt sugar and Sudan dye re-spectively Other adulterants such as saltpetre salt sawdustguava seeds papaya seeds the bark of the cassia plant andchalk were reported by the respondents as some of thesubstances they saw in the food products they usually buy atthe market (Table 5)

33 Detection of Food Adulteration by RespondentsVarious traditional means of detecting food adulterationwere made known by the respondents as shown in Table 6e respondents indicated the use of cassava flour or spoiledwheat flour as adulterants for groundnut paste To detect thepresence of flour in groundnut paste the majority (9) of therespondents indicated that when the groundnut paste is usedto prepare soup the soup becomes thick e presence offlour in the groundnut paste also shows the presence of whitecrystals Lighter groundnut paste was an indication of theaddition of oil

Regarding the detection of adulterated pepper themajority (7) of the respondents indicated that the addition ofother substances to increase the bulkiness of the pepperreduces the hotness of the pepper is informs the con-sumer that the pepper has been adulterated Again theaddition of other substances to the pepper also reduced theusual strong and sharp scent of the pepper According tosome of the respondents the intense red colour of pepperindicates the addition of colour

Again the responses showed that the presence ofadulterants in tomato powder can be notified after it hasbeen mixed with water in a container Other particles orsubstances usually settle at the bottom of the containerTomato powder is usually not very red hence any unusualred colour is a result of colour addition Furthermore to-mato in the form of paste is perceived to be adulterated withflour if there are signs of thickness

Respondents mentioned various means of detecting thepresence of adulterants in honey as shown in Table 6 Mostof the respondents (9) indicated that honey is usually thickhence any form of adulteration with water will cause it to be

Table 1 Sociodemographic characteristics of respondents

Characteristics Parameters Frequency

Age (years)

18ndash25 158 41126ndash35 114 29736ndash45 72 18845ndash55 30 78gt55 10 26

Ethnicity

Ewe 217 565Akan 83 216

Ga-Adangbe 44 115Northerner 29 76Others 11 29

Religion

Christianity 341 888Islam 31 81

Traditional 7 18Others 5 13

Marital status

Single 198 516Married 134 349Divorced 23 60Widowed 17 44Cohabit 12 31

Educational background

Nonformal 60 156Primary 23 60

Middle schoolJHS 61 159SHSvocational 59 154

Diploma 36 94Tertiary 145 378

Journal of Food Quality 3

Table 4 Respondentsrsquo reasons for buying or not buying an adulterated food product

Yes specify

Will you buy a food productwhen you know it is

adulterated Total

Yes No19 166 185

Sickness 0 11 11Food contamination 0 2 2Not original 0 8 8Not all adulterated food is harmful 6 0 6Still need it to prepare food 2 0 2Reduce quality (nutrients) 0 8 8If it is there to serve as a preservative 1 0 1Waste of money 0 2 2As a piece of evidence that food adulteration is common 2 0 2Change in taste 0 1 1It is not good 0 2 2Dangerous 0 96 96Stomach upset 0 7 7Food poisoning 0 8 8Unhealthy to eat 0 24 24It will not taste good 0 4 4Can cause death 0 6 6Can cause deadly disease 0 7 7Makes food bulk (plenty) 0 2 2Total 30 354 384

Table 2 Respondentsrsquo knowledge about food adulteration or authenticity

Frequency

Do you know anything about food adulteration Yes 274 714No 110 286

For how long have you known of food adulteration (years)

lt1 62 2261ndash5 117 4276ndash10 54 197gt11 41 150

If the price of a food item is lower than expected or too good to be true or the quantity is more than expectedwould you expect food adulteration

Yes 181 661No 93 339

Have you heard of any issues about food fraud or adulteration in Ghana on television or media Yes 87 227No 297 773

Did you hear of the recent recall of a certain canned tomato paste from the Ghanaian market Yes 178 464No 206 536

Do you consider the place of purchase as important in determining the authenticity or genuineness of a foodproduct

Yes 263 685No 121 315

Table 3 Knowledge of respondents regarding food authenticity

Question Response Frequency A Have you ever bought foodfood products and realized it has been adulterated or you have been deceivedor fraud

Yes 194 505No 190 495

B Do you know or have you heard of any other Ghanaian foods or food products that are being adulterated Yes 182 474No 202 526

C Will you buy a food product when you know it is adulterated Yes 30 78No 354 922

D Any reason for your chosen option in (c) Yes 199 518No 185 482

E Do you know of any means of determining whether a particular food product has been adulterated Yes 95 247No 289 753


Table 5 Common adulterants in food items reported by the respondents

Food items Adulterants Frequency

Groundnut paste

Kontonte flour 55 705Corn flour 12 154

Do not know 5 64Water 1 13

Vegetable oil 2 26Colour 2 26

Flour and oil 1 13

Powdered pepper

Food colour 30 341Pear seed flour 12 136

Spices 1 11Flour and colour 9 102Do not know 10 114

Sawdust 1 11Cola nut 22 250Prekese 1 11Maggi 1 11Flour 1 11

Tomato paste

Starch 4 286Colour 8 571

Bissap leaves 1 71Do not know 1 71

Honey

Burnt sugar 37 698Do not know 3 57

Water 8 151Burnt foam 3 57

Starch 2 38

Tomato powder

Food colour 6 600Wheat flour 1 100Do not know 2 200

Colour plus unknown substance 1 100Dzowoe Corn flour 1 1000

Light soup Yam or cassava stock 6 857Corn flour 1 143

Foreign rice Local rice 5 800Rubber rice 1 200

Roselle juice (sobolo) Food colour 3 1000

Fufu Palm oil 4 800Guava leaves 1 200

Banku Gari as cassava dough 2 1000Kokonte flour Corn flour 3 1000

Wheat flour Corn flour 2 500Poultry feed 2 500

Fried yam Colour 2 667Sugar 1 333

Bread Citrine 2 1000

Powdered spicesSawdust 1 250

Spoiled spices 1 250Industrial chemicals 2 500

Kenkey Cassava dough 8 1000

Palm oil Sudan dye 40 976Starch 1 24

Coconut oil Shea butter (melted) 1 1000

Milk powder Bread flour 1 333Nondairy creamer 2 667

Ginger powder Do not know 2 1000


light and spread easily Again 6 of the respondents indicatedthat when the cotton wick is dipped in honey pure honeywill burn but adulterated honey with water will give acracking sound While other respondents said they coulddetect whether honey is pure by freezing it some also saidwhen it is very sugary is an indication that it was adulteratedwith sugar

To detect the presence of colour in palm oil the re-spondents mentioned that if the oil stains your tongue aftereating it then there is a suspicion of adulteration Some alsoindicated that adding drops of iodine to the red palm oil willchange the colour to blue-black indicating the presence ofstarch

4 Discussion

Food adulteration has been a menace for the past decadeAdulteration of food reduces the nutritional quality andmay also pose some adverse health effects to the endconsumer is study showed that the higher number ofrespondents knowing food adulteration could mean thatconsumers with prior knowledge of adulterated fooditems should be able to choose food items carefullyStudies by Meerza and Gustafson [10] reported thatconsumersrsquo knowledge of food adulteration made them

decrease their willingness to pay for extra virgin olive oilby $453 when they received information about extravirgin olive oil adulteration or fraud from other countriesey argue that consumers with no prior knowledge offood fraud will react more when they receive informationabout food fraud e negative spillover effect of foodfraud of a particular food product can decrease con-sumersrsquo willingness to pay for the same product fromother countries is means that the deceitful behaviour ofone country can roll over to other countries Consumerswho have prior knowledge of food adulteration incidentstherefore tend to be more conscious when they receiveinformation about food adulteration

Most people adulterate food to increase its bulkinessthereby increasing the quantity of the food product on saleis means that the behaviour of eating any food productcan be determined by consumer level of education and othersociodemographic factors Issues about food adulterationknown by the respondents were low as shown in Table 2 andthis can be seen in the responses given when asked about therecent recall of tomato paste on the Ghanaian market due tosuspected tomato paste fraud and adulteration Only 464indicated hearing of the incidence meaning that the cam-paign and broadcasting of adulteration of food are very lowas shown in this study

Table 5 Continued


Ice cream Colour 2 667Flour 1 333

Cooked beans Saltpetre 2 1000Beef Colour 15 1000

TurmericColour 2 500Sawdust 1 250

Yellow dye 1 250Shrimp powder Fish head (dried) 1 1000Agushi powder Flour 1 1000Cassava dough Salt 1 1000

Milk

Water 7 636Flour 2 182

Starch powder 1 91Chalk powder 1 91

Olive oil Tea tree oil 1 1000

SugarChalk powder 12 857

Flour 1 71Washing powder 1 71

Black pepper Papaya seed 5 1000Coffee seed powder Tamarind seed powder 2 1000Kebab powder Pear seed powder 1 1000Tea leave Coloured leaves 1 1000

Common salt Kadamire brick powder 1 143Flour 6 857

Fish Oil 3 1000Cinnamon sticks Bark cassia plant 1 1000Cummins seeds Sawdust 1 1000Pulses Dyes 1 1000Tea Artificial colouring agents 2 1000Jollof Colour 3 1000Fruits and vegetables Cobalt 1 1000


According to Bansal et al [11] adulteration of food canpose a danger to the consumer ey argued that adulteratedfood may be toxic and deprived of essential nutrients neededfor proper health and can cause intoxication to the individual

Some of the respondents claimed they will consume adul-terated food even if they know it has been adulterated Not alladulterants are harmful to human health although they arenot to be present in the food product

Table 6 Traditional means of detecting food adulteration by the respondents

Food products Means of detection by respondents Frequency

Groundnut paste

Not smooth or presence of particle 3 167ickening soup 9 500Looks whitish 4 222

Appears lighter with oil 1 56Soup looks gelly 1 56

Powdered pepper

Looks very red 3 115Pepper is not hot as usual 17 654

Different odour other than that of pepper 3 115Taste sweet 1 38

Smells differently 1 38Mostly moist because of the adulterants 1 38

Tomato powder Unknown particles settle when mixing with water in a container 5 833Looks very red 1 167

Bread e addition of citrine makes the bread very sweet 2 1000

Tomato paste Flour addition makes it very thick 2 333Looks pale than the usual red colour 4 667

Honey

e presence of sugar attracts ants 3 86Watery when diluted with water and spread easily 9 257

Flammable when pure 2 57When you get stomach upset after taking it 1 29Rub in the palm for the presence of particles 1 29

Put a spoon of honey in a cup of water pure honey will settle at the bottom 1 29Cotton wick dip in pure honey will burn but a cracking sound will be heard if there is water in the

honey 6 171

Pure honey will not freeze in a freezer 3 86Change in original taste and thickness 1 29

Adulterated honey will break at intervals when pouring it out from a spoon or container 1 29Pure honey will settle when mixed with water but adulterated one will mix quickly with water 2 57

Pure honey leaves traces on a smooth surface 3 86Taste very sugary 2 57

Spices Mix with water and allow to settle Adulterants will suspend 1 1000Ice cream Looks like porridge when flour is added 1 1000

Fried yam Looks very yellow 3 750Taste sweet indicating the addition of sugar 1 250

KenkeyMalleable 1 200Gummy 3 600

Taste like banku 1 200

Palm oil

Taste different 4 444Stain your tongue after eating 1 111

Colour changes to dark red upon heating indicating adulteration 3 333Add drops of iodine to red oil if the colour changes to blue-black this indicates adulteration with

starch 1 111

Ginger powder It will not smell and taste like the original ginger 2 1000Meat (beef) Soaking in water will get rid of the adulterants (colour) 3 1000Milk powder Mix with water and adulterants will suspend 1 1000Plastic rice Burning the rice will cause it to melt 2 1000

MilkPut a drop of milk on a vertical surface if it flows slowly then it is not adulterated 4 667

Pure milk will leave traces when allowed to flow on a smooth surface 1 167Taste different 1 167

Sugar Dissolve sugar in water the presence of white precipitate indicates adulteration with chalk 8 1000Black pepper seed Black pepper seed will sink in alcohol while papaya seed will float 1 1000Mustard seed e presence of argemone seed will feel rough when rubbing between palm 1 1000Coffee Add coffee powder to water if the powder settles it is adulterated 2 1000


Food items that are prone to adulteration range fromherbs spices oil flour and pastes with varied associatedadulterants Substances mostly used to adulterate food arecheap and do not add any essential value to the food besidesincreasing the bulkiness of the food product for economicgain Market women or vendors usually use dried milledcassava (kokonte flour) to adulterate groundnut pastemainly because it is a cheap product Substances used toadulterate chilli pepper powder are mostly not as red as thepepper itself Hence vendors use colour to mask this colourchange to get the red colour back

Paracetamol and red oil were reported by the respon-dents as adulterants used in fufu preparation a favouritedish in most sub-Saharan African countries Fufu is pre-pared by pounding cooked cassava and plantain together Inthe absence of plantain (when not in season or expensive)food joints use palm oil in place of plantain to obtain thecharacteristic colour of fufu Saltpetre and salt were men-tioned by the respondents as an adulterant for cooked beansand cassava dough respectively

To cover up the sensory defects of the adulteratedproducts some vendors use chemicals and dyes [12] Whilesome food items may contain some natural toxins whichmay lead to serious adverse health effects when consumed inexcess the deliberate addition of unpermitted colourants orchemical substances such as Sudan dye could be verydangerous to the individual even when present in thesmallest quantity e use of dyes and colours for exampleto spike beef and yam as reported by respondents in thisstudy is to make them attractive for consumers to buy Inthe process one may be eating metanil yellow a dye that isnot permissible in food A consumer will therefore be in-viting disease instead of eating for good health

Colourants were also reported as adulterants for beefNitrates and nitrites among other substances have beenreported to be used as a colourant and curing agent in themeat industry to improve the quality characteristics as wellas preserve the red colour of the meat According to a reportby Govari and Pexara [13] nitrates are quite nonlethalcompared to nitrites and this has raised some potentialhealth effects in their usage is activity makes the beefappealing to the buyers Nevertheless one does not know thequantity of these substances being used for this purpose andwhether it is food grade or not

Although yellow dye and sawdust were reported by therespondents to have been found in turmeric powder studiesby Kumar [14] and Beniwal and Khetarpaul [15] mentionedchalk powder as adulterants used to adulterate turmericpowder but did not detect the presence of coloured sawdustin any of the turmeric samples ey also found that redchilli pepper powder is mostly adulterated with artificialcolour but respondents in this study mentioned sawdustpear seed powder cola nut maggi flour and prekese assome of the common adulterants they have seen in pow-dered pepper

Water has also become a common adulterant for mostfood items that are mostly in liquid form Several researchershave reported on milk and milk products adulteration whichis a problem in the developing world wheremilk marketing is

mostly informal and there is little or no monitoring of thehandling practices of market agents [16] ey reported thatadulteration of milk implies the addition of any of itscomponents water or sugar is was supported by Beniwaland Khetarpaul [15] who found that milk is adulterated withwater is could be attributed to the amount of milk supplywhich depends on the season ey argue that the source ofthis water may be from ponds wells and rivers which arelikely to be contaminated with bacteria Kumar [14] alsoreported adulteration of milk with water to the tune of 70e use of synthetic chemicals and detergents such as washingpowder as reported in this study (Table 5) for adulteratingfood items was also reported by Choudhary et al [3] isusually causes irreversible damage to the consumer

e issue of selling fake food products is now commonon the market as the perpetrator of these acts plays withconsumersrsquo health A report by Food and Drug Authority(FDA Ghana) stated that what is being sold on the Ghanaianmarket as tomato powder is not tomato powder but isannatto seed powder Food vendors sometimes add colour tothe flour like cassava flour or expired wheat flour and portrayit as tomato powderere is currently no tomato powder onthe Ghanaian market

Honey is also another food item that has been susceptibleto adulteration with synthetic materials e two main in-dicators for the qualitative analysis of honey are fructose andglucose [17] Adulteration of honey with any substance otherthan the actual bee honey makes it very dangerous forconsumption e most common adulterants for honey areinverted syrups and other high fructose syrups that areobtained from C3 plants including cassava and rice [1718]In this study respondents indicated that substances such asfoam sugar and others are burnt to dark colour and addedto the honey to increase its bulkiness for their profit margine health implication of these practices is even more se-rious now that honey and honey product consumption hasgrown considerably over the last decades [3]

Other substances are also added to food in their prep-aration to achieve a certain purpose not necessarily foreconomic gain Some of these substances are consideredherbs preservatives or catalytic agents and not controllingtheir usage as food additives can result in a health hazard Inthis study saltpetre formalin and salt were reported to havebeen detected in food items by the respondents Saltpetre orpotassium nitrate (KNO3) is added to the boiled beans toreduce the cooking time and make them soft or tender Astudy by Tugli et al [19] reported that an overdose ofsaltpetre can lead to stomach upset and should therefore beused sparingly Formalin or formaldehyde on the otherhand is used in laboratories for the preservation of animalspecimens Others also used it in making building materialsand pressed wood products such as plywood and gluesFormalin in this current study was used to preserve fishwhile others used it to prevent houseflies from settling onthem is agrees with the report by Bansal et al [11] whostated that meat fish and fruits are adulterated with for-malin and consumption of such food items can causecancer Salt also is generally used as a preservative or toenhance the taste of the food


Respondents also mentioned that they have heard thatmetanil yellow is used to adulterate turmeric powderMetanil yellow is an artificial colour and a nonpermitted dyein foods e presence of chalk powder in sugar as reportedby the respondents has also been found by other respondentsin a study conducted by Beniwal and Khetarpaul [15]

ere are various ways of detecting adulterants in fooditems Detection of partial substitution of food items hasbeen reported to be difficult especially before an investi-gation of the adulterant Authentication and detection ofadulterants in food items could be based on the morpho-logical or organoleptic nature of the food material (colourtexture and odour) or chemical nature [20] Detection ofadulterants in food items can be demonstrated by thepresence of foreign materials deviation of a componentfrom its normal state or profilingemost common amongthese is the detection of the presence of foreign materials[11] is can be done through physical methods such asmacroscopic and microscopic visual structural analysistexture bulk density solubility and bleaching of food itemsMost of the methods of detection indicated by the re-spondents were solubility visual textural properties aromataste and rheology of the food item

Food items adulterated with flour are mostly detected bythe thickness and the precipitate it leaves behind when usedto prepare food Flour is mostly used as a thickener in mostsauce preparations hence its addition to groundnut pastewill exhibit that property due to its adsorption capacityAlthough groundnut paste contains oil some sellers ofgroundnut paste add previously used oil to adulterate thegroundnut paste and this makes the paste lighter and affectsthe rheological properties of the food item

Pepper is usually very hot hence the addition of othersubstances to it to increase its bulkiness makes it less hot Inthis regard consumers must add more than necessary totheir food to taste or sense the flavour of pepper FromTable 5 most of the adulterants indicated for adulteratingpepper are usually not red hence the addition of red colourmasks the presence of the adulterants ese colours couldbe food colours or Sudan dye

Tomato powder is usually scarce compared to chillipepper powder When tomato is processed into powder it isusually not very red A report by the Ghana Food and DrugAuthority in 2016 stated that tomato powder in the Gha-naian market is not necessarily tomato powder [21] It is anannatto seed that has been ground ormilled into powder andis being sold on the market as tomato powder Hence suchproducts do not have the flavour of tomato

Honey is typically thick and any form of adulterationwith water makes it light e use of burnt sugar and othersubstances like foam makes the honey look very dark Otheradulterants such as stones marbles pebbles and otherforeign materials found in food items are discarded bysieving

In the absence of advanced technologies such as high-performance liquid chromatography and near-infraredspectroscopy the local populace can rely on the physicalmeans of fraud detection which are less costly and requireno technical analytical skills [22]

5 Conclusion

e use of useless or other extraneous materials in adul-terating food items by fraudsters is mainly to make a profit atthe expense of the consumer Most of the adulteration isdeliberate and the lack of knowledge on the part of theconsumers makes it difficult to detect at first sight Majorfood items such as groundnut paste chilli pepper powderhoney tomato and palm oil were reported by the respon-dents as those that are prone to adulteration Almost allmeans of adulteration detection reported in this study wereby sensory or textural tests which is a quick screening testthat can be performed at the household level and may nothave any scientific validity but can give the consumer abroad picture of the nature of adulteration in the food in caseof doubt To avoid consuming adulterated foods consumersmust cultivate the habit of possibly processing their fooditems especially the common ones that are prone toadulteration It is recommended that they buy food from anauthentic source and inspect food items critically for anyobvious signs of adulteration

Data Availability

All data are included in the paper

Conflicts of Interest

e authors declare no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

e authors want to acknowledge the support of SalifuNanga Nii Korley Kortei and Clement Okraku Tettey of theUniversity of Health and Allied Sciences and the GhanaNational Petroleum Cooperation for their financial support

References

[1] K Giannakas ldquoInformation asymmetries and consumptiondecisions in organic food product marketsrdquoCanadian Journalof Agricultural EconomicsRevue canadienne dampaposagro-economie vol 50 no 1 pp 35ndash50 2002

[2] UK National Food Crime Unit Food Crime Annual StrategicAssessment Food Standards Agency and Food StandardsScotland Report 2016

[3] A Choudhary N Gupta F Hameed and S Choton ldquoAnoverview of food adulteration concept sources impactchallenges and detectionrdquo International Journal of ChemicalStudies vol 8 no 1 pp 2564ndash2573 2020

[4] G Anita and S Neetu ldquoHazards of new technology in pro-moting food adulterationrdquo IOSR Journal Of EnvironmentalScience Toxicology And Food Technology vol 5 no 1pp 08ndash10 2013

[5] FAO Assuring Food Safety and Quality Considerations ofFood Safety and Consumer Protection FAO CorporateDocument Repository Agriculture and Consumer ProtectionDivision Food and Agriculture Organization Rome Italy2011

[6] S Majumdar ldquoFood hazards and food securityrdquo EverymanrsquosScience vol 64 pp 348ndash355 2010


[7] WHO Evaluation of Certain Food Additives and Contami-nants 67th Report of the Joint FAOWHO Expert Committeeon Food Additives WHO Technical Report Series no 940World Health Organization Geneva Switzerland 2007

[8] Raosoft calculator ldquoSample sizerdquo 2004 httpwwwraosoftcomsamplesizehtml

[9] IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows IBM Corp Armonk NYUSA 2013

[10] S I A Meerza and C R Gustafson Consumer Response toFood Fraud Conference paper Washington DC USA 2018

[11] S Bansal A Singh M Mangal A K Mangal and S KumarldquoFood adulteration sources health risks and detectionmethodsrdquo Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutritionvol 57 no 6 pp 1174ndash1189 2015

[12] S Kirchgaessner Extra Virgin on the Ridiculous Italian OliveOil Producers Accused of Fraud e Guardian Kings placeUK 2015

[13] M Govari and A Pexara ldquoNitrates and Nitrites in meatproductsrdquo Journal of the Hellenic Veterinary Medical Societyvol 66 no 3 pp 127ndash140 2018

[14] G D S Kumar and M N Popat ldquoFarmersrsquo perceptionsknowledge and management of aflatoxins in groundnuts(Arachis hypogaea L) in Indiardquo Crop Protection vol 29no 12 pp 1534ndash1541 2010

[15] A Beniwal and N Khetarpaul ldquoKnowledge of consumersregarding the nature and extent of adulteration of IndianfoodsrdquoNutrition and Health vol 13 no 3 pp 153ndash160 1999

[16] A Omore S Arimi E Kangethe et al Assessing and Man-aging Milk-Borne Health Risks for the Benefit of Consumers inKenya Smallholder Dairy (RampD) Project Nairobi Kenya2002

[17] L Chen X Xue Z Ye J Zhou F Chen and J ZhaoldquoDetermination of Chinese honey adulterated with highfructose corn syrup by near infrared spectroscopyrdquo FoodChemistry vol 128 no 4 pp 1110ndash1114 2011

[18] S Wang Q Guo L Wang et al ldquoDetection of honeyadulteration with starch syrup by high performance liquidchromatographyrdquo Food Chemistry vol 172 pp 669ndash6742015

[19] L S Tugli E K Essuman N K Kortei J Nsor-AtindanaE B Nartey and J Ofori-Amoah ldquoBioactive constituents ofwaakye a local Ghanaian dish prepared with Sorghum bicolor(L) Moench leaf sheathsrdquo Scientific African vol 3 Article IDe00049 2019

[20] P C Shaw F N Ngan P-H P But and J Wang ldquoMolecularmarkers in Chinese medicinal materialsrdquo in Authentication ofChinese Medicinal Materials by DNA Technology pp 1ndash23World Scientific Publishing Co Singapore 2002

[21] H Mogtari ldquoFDA warns public over fake tomato powderrdquo2016 httpswwwghanawebcomGhanaHomePageNewsArchiveFDA-warns-public-over-fake-tomato-powder-464265 Retrieved on 22112019

[22] I Gonzalez-Martın J M Hernandez-Hierro andJ M Gonzalez-Cabrera ldquoUse of NIRS technology with aremote reflectance fibre-optic probe for predicting mineralcomposition (Ca K P Fe Mn Na Zn) protein and moisturein alfalfardquo Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry vol 387no 6 pp 2199ndash2205 2007


role in preventing food adulteration [3] since nowadays thepractice of food adulteration is common in our food chain

e substances usually termed adulterants could bechemicals or any material of inferior quality or being uselesswhich are not to be present in the food and may be in-tentionally added to reduce manufacturing costs or for acruel purpose [4] Some of the common substances oradulterants used may include wood saving other plantsseeds of similar colour in powdery form sand marbles foodcolour and filth that have been found in the herbs and spicescategory of food products Low-priced edible and nonedibleoils are generally used for adulterating high-grade oil such asextra virgin olive oil

Adulteration of food is usually done through mixingsubstituting abstracting and concealing the quality of thefood product is activity reduces the quality of the foodsubstance and its consumption may be fatal to the health ofthe consumer [5ndash7] In other instances a nonfood substanceis intentionally added to a food product to improve theappearance or the outcome of the product An example is theaddition of Sudan IV dye to palm oil to bring out the redcolour even though the use of Sudan IV dye as a foodadditive has been banned Other food items and theircommon adulterants have also been reported including theadulteration of red wine with the juice of bilberries sugarwith chalk powder honey with cane sugar chilli powderwith brick powder and black pepper with papaya seed [3]e brain behind these malpractices is mainly for economicgain and not necessarily to improve the nutritive quality ofthe food product e health of the consumer who is in-nocent about the content of the food to be consumed istherefore at stake However not all adulterants are harmfulto human health An example is the addition of water to cowmilk although this must be made known to the consumer orbe written on the label

At this present time the traceability of food is restrictedto the quality of each processorrsquos documentation Whenconsumers have doubt or suspected fraud in a particularfood product there is no standardized analysis available todiscriminate a good product from an adulterated one Al-though there may be basic screening tests for determiningadulteration there is no empirical evidence of this practiceAgain despite the advancement in technology in the de-veloped world there is little or lack of technology in thedeveloping countries to detect fake and adulterated foodproducts Nevertheless detection of adulterants in fooditems is necessary to assess the authenticity and to protectconsumers against fraudulent activities e present studyaims to evaluate consumersrsquo knowledge and determine thedegree of contamination in some commonly used food itemsbought by consumers and the means of detection of theadulterant

2 Materials and Methods

21 Selection of Respondents and Sample Size Determinatione study was conducted in Ho of the Volta Region ofGhana e target populations were women above the age of18 years e respondents were either housewives or

working In this study a sample size of 384 was estimatedusing the RAOSOFT sample size calculator [8] e samplesize was calculated assuming a confidence level of 95 a 5margin of error and a response distribution of 50 esample size n and the margin of error E are given by

X Zc

1001113874 1113875

2r(100 minus r)

n Nx

((N minus 1)E + x)

E Sqrt(N minus n)x

n(N minus 1)1113890 1113891

(1)

where N denotes the population size n denotes the samplesize r denotes the fraction of the response of the interestedgroup E denotes the margin of error and Z(c100) is thecritical value for the confidence level c

Probability sampling was used in this study to ensure agood representation of the population A simple randomsample of clusters was employed in selecting participantsfrom the population

22 Data Collection Tools and Procedures A pretestedquestionnaire was designed for data collection regardingrespondentsrsquo knowledge of food adulteration adulterantsnormally used to adulterate food items and the means ofdetection at the household level Participants were providedwith all necessary consent forms to read and fill uponagreement to participate in the study e questionnaireswere effectively administered and collected as the re-searchers personally took them to the participants andadministered them one-on-one translating the content ofthe questions to people who could not read or understandthem

23 Data Analysis e data obtained from the study wereanalysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences soft-ware (SPSS) version 220 [9] Descriptive statistics were usedto summarize the processed data into frequencies andpercentages using tables

3 Results

31 Respondentsrsquo Sociodemographic Characteristics andKnowledge of Food Adulteration e study was sorted todetermine respondentsrsquo knowledge about food adulterationand their contact with an adulterated food product eresults of the study show that the majority (411) of therespondents were between the ages of 18 and 35 as shown inTable 1 Very few of the participants were above the age of 55years ose who were single formed the majority (516)and 31 were cohabiting In terms of the educationalbackground of the respondents 159 had completedmiddle school with 156 having no formal education Mostof the respondents 378 were in tertiary education or hadcompleted A greater part of the respondents were Christians(888) and 13 belonged to other forms of religion e














Age (years)


Ethnicity

Ewe 217 565Akan 83 216


Religion



Marital status








Yes specify


adulterated Total

Yes No19 166 185



Frequency



lt1 62 2261ndash5 117 4276ndash10 54 197gt11 41 150


Yes 181 661No 93 339




Yes 263 685No 121 315



Yes 194 505No 190 495








Groundnut paste




Flour and oil 1 13

Powdered pepper




Tomato paste



Honey



Starch 2 38

Tomato powder





















4 Discussion




Table 5 Continued






Milk














Groundnut paste



Powdered pepper







Honey




honey 6 171








Palm oil



starch 1 111
























5 Conclusion


Data Availability




Acknowledgments


References





































Age (years)


Ethnicity

Ewe 217 565Akan 83 216


Religion



Marital status








Yes specify


adulterated Total

Yes No19 166 185



Frequency



lt1 62 2261ndash5 117 4276ndash10 54 197gt11 41 150


Yes 181 661No 93 339




Yes 263 685No 121 315



Yes 194 505No 190 495








Groundnut paste




Flour and oil 1 13

Powdered pepper




Tomato paste



Honey



Starch 2 38

Tomato powder





















4 Discussion




Table 5 Continued






Milk














Groundnut paste



Powdered pepper







Honey




honey 6 171








Palm oil



starch 1 111
























5 Conclusion


Data Availability




Acknowledgments


References


























Yes specify


adulterated Total

Yes No19 166 185



Frequency



lt1 62 2261ndash5 117 4276ndash10 54 197gt11 41 150


Yes 181 661No 93 339




Yes 263 685No 121 315



Yes 194 505No 190 495








Groundnut paste




Flour and oil 1 13

Powdered pepper




Tomato paste



Honey



Starch 2 38

Tomato powder





















4 Discussion




Table 5 Continued






Milk














Groundnut paste



Powdered pepper







Honey




honey 6 171








Palm oil



starch 1 111
























5 Conclusion


Data Availability




Acknowledgments


References



























Groundnut paste




Flour and oil 1 13

Powdered pepper




Tomato paste



Honey



Starch 2 38

Tomato powder





















4 Discussion




Table 5 Continued






Milk














Groundnut paste



Powdered pepper







Honey




honey 6 171








Palm oil



starch 1 111
























5 Conclusion


Data Availability




Acknowledgments


References



























4 Discussion




Table 5 Continued






Milk














Groundnut paste



Powdered pepper







Honey




honey 6 171








Palm oil



starch 1 111
























5 Conclusion


Data Availability




Acknowledgments


References





























Groundnut paste



Powdered pepper







Honey




honey 6 171








Palm oil



starch 1 111
























5 Conclusion


Data Availability




Acknowledgments


References











































5 Conclusion


Data Availability




Acknowledgments


References

























Research Article Consumers' Knowledge of Food Adulteration ...

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Transcript of Research Article Consumers' Knowledge of Food Adulteration ...