Is your ghee real or made of carrots? Research suggests that it cannot even be detected in laboratory tests
Suspense Crime, Digital Desk : The consumption of ghee is very common in homes, especially in India as ghee is known as a superfood in Ayurveda. What if your superfood actually turns out to be hazardous to your health? This has become a big issue because the adulteration of ghee is on the rise and frequently makes headlines in India. Due to this, a study has been recently conducted at IIT (Banaras Hindu University) which has led to an alarming discovery.
IIT(BHU) study on fake ghee
Adulterators have found a new escape route as revealed in a recent study at IIT(BHU). Natural substances such as carrot pigment (beta carotene) are actually being used as adulterants in ghee such that they cannot be detected. It is making the claim that if beta carotene, a pigment of carrot is added for adulterating ghee, then it will show the laboratory test as showing pure ghee i.e., it is real. In other words, lab tests are now unable to identify between pure and adulterated ghee.
A major challenge for IIT(BHU) research
It is understood by experts that ghee adulteration involves not just the addition of vegetable or palm oil or pork fat, but it also consists of substitutions that can now also evade laboratory tests. The problem now facing scientists is to improve their tools to detect this fraudulence.
Is adulterated ghee with carrot pigment harmful to health?
While the pigments derived from carrot are harmless in the case of human consumption, this research brings in questions as the untrue lab test shows it to be pure ghee. Pigments obtained from carrots i.e., beta carotene are beneficial for health and are abundant in many antioxidants along with vitamin A. If however the ghee is obtained from vegetable oil or hardened fat, the carrot pigment is solely added to mimic pure ghee. That is the actual composition you are eating thinking of it as pure ghee is neither nutritionally appropriate for the health nor does it benefit it, hence damage to health is inevitable.
