Vegetable Adulteration: How to Check If Green Peas are Adulterated or Not

Green peas are a popular winter vegetable. They are very nutritious and contain a fair amount of fiber & antioxidants. But consuming adulterated green peas can affect your health badly.  Therefore, it’s very important to check out whether the fresh, green vegetables that you just bought from the market are adulterated or not.

How Green Peas are adulterated?

• In the case of green peas, a cancer-causing adulterant Malachite Green is used to make it look lush, green & fresh but it leads to a lot of severe health issues. Now, let’s discuss Malachite Green:

• Malachite Green, a textile dye, has been used extensively as an antiprotozoal and antifungal medication for fish. As per Britannica, malachite green is also referred to as aniline green or benzaldehyde green. They are used for medication in a dilute solution for local antiseptic.

• Malachite green is effective against fungi and gram-positive bacteria. “It controls fungal attacks, protozoan infections, and some other diseases caused by helminths on a wide variety of fish and other aquatic organisms,” it reads. 

Major Health Risks:

As per National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), the toxicity of dye increases with the passage time, temperature and concentration. It also causes serious issues like carcinogenesis, mutagenesis, teratogenicity, chromosomal fractures, and respiratory which are extremely toxic.

Easy Steps to Check Adulteration in Green Peas at Home:

Realizing the importance of the health of citizens, FSSAI has taken an initiative on Twitter, which is called #DetectingFoodAdulterants. Now you'll learn about how to check artificial color adulteration in Green Peas. Follow these 4 easy steps to check this:

• Take some green peas in a transparent glass

• Add water to it, mix well and wait for half an hour 

• Now check the mixture and see the change in color

• Unadulterated don’t leave any color while green peas adulterated with artificial color, the water turns green