Culinary Illusion: Don’t eat with your eyes

Srinagar, Aug 8: Why is the rista on your trami so vibrantly coloured? What makes your ice cream so bright pink? Why are you parched after a meal in a restaurant? What is being used in that cheap Kebab? What’s filling your momos? Why is the saunf so bright green? Is the cream floating on the milk actually milk fat? Ask questions, seek answers.

Food determines health and is responsible for a number of diseases.

In the past 10 days, J&K has seen a wholesale shattering of trust in the food market.

The J&K Food and Drug Control Organisation seized a massive consignment of 440 tonnes of adulterated Rasgullas in Jammu.

More than 800 kg of ‘artificial cheese’ were also recovered from Jammu city.

And subsequently, over 2500 kg of rotten meat and thousands of meat products, full of colours that kill, were exposed and destroyed by the department.

All these products, in the absence of intelligence and seizure, would have reached our plates and bodies.

The effects of consuming adulterated, artificial, and rotten foods cannot be imagined well enough by the unsuspecting population.

And as if these shockers were not enough, the department issued a public notice stating that many popular snacks like Biryani, Kebab, and Tikka are laced with tartrazine, erythrosine, and carmoisine, dangerous dyes known to cause illness in humans.

Experts say that the information gaps, the poor understanding of food adulterations, and the fast eroding trust in the market are clarion calls for consumers to wake up,.

Commissioner Food Safety, J&K, Smita Sethi said every person “needs to be their own food safety officer”.

She said consumers need to be aware of the parameters of food safety and be vigilant while purchasing and consuming.

“The look, the texture, the smell, the labels, the ingredients, these are some of the parameters that people can check,” she said.

Sethi said people must report any suspicious food ingredients or products to the department on the phone numbers publicised regularly.

“We will sample the foods and get the testing done,” she said.

Sethi said that routine sampling of products is carried out, but ‘complaint-based’ sampling can also be ramped up.

“Everyone must be vigilant before consuming anything,” she said.

A senior Food Safety Officer said people often find themselves confused about the ingredients in their foods.

And in the absence of educational campaigns, they do not seek relevant answers.

“Why is the rista on your trami so coloured? Because the bright red colour in Wazwan often comes from tartrazine or carmoisine,” he said.

He said the Wazas (master chefs) are often found carrying their food colours with them, and use these indiscriminately without caring for health risks.

“The same is the case with ice-creams, cakes, and confectioneries. It’s a dark world of chemicals and colours,” he said.

The excess use of monosodium glutamate (MSG) is another area of concern.

In addition, the preservatives and additives in packaged foods are a language that people often find difficult to understand.

A consumer finds the puzzle unsolvable when it comes to the codes and numbers on food packages.

“There must be a sustained awareness campaign from the Food Safety Department, apart from a proactive approach to sampling,” said Muneer Ahmed, a Srinagar resident.