Nutrition and Food Chemistry

Food Adulteration

Food contamination refers to the process by which the quality of food is compromised, either through the addition of inferior quality components or the removal of essential ingredients. This encompasses not only the deliberate inclusion or substitution of substances but also the occurrence of biological and chemical contamination throughout the various stages of food production, storage, processing, transportation, and distribution, which can lead to a deterioration in the quality of food products. Adulterants are substances employed to render food products unsafe for human consumption.

Categories within this context include:

• Intentional Adulterants
• Microbial Contamination
• Economic Adulteration
• Harmful Substances
• Incidental Adulteration