Food dilution is the addition of a cheaper ingredient to a high-value food stuff without declaring it. Dilution and overdilution are widely practiced adulterations. Not only liquid but also solid food items are prone to dilution with water or other liquids. This phenomenon is conventionally confirmed by refractometric Brix determination or density measurements. It is the most common form of adulteration in liquid milk. It affects the density, refractive index of lactoserum, and freezing point of adulterated milk items. Honey and other sweeteners are also often diluted with water, which causes honey to deteriorate faster during storage. Therefore, honey overdiluted with water lacks proper consistency and nutritional value. Meat products are also prone to such activity. The lean meat acquires a high water-binding capacity after being chopped and, thus, absorbs a large quantity of water, which has been claimed to give necessary consistency for stuffing into thin cases. It was detected frequently in frankfurters, bologna, and pork sausages. Technology is used to fraudulently increase the weight of fish and seafood in order to make extra economic benefit. Over-treating, which means over-breeding or over-glazing, soaking fish in brine solution, injecting chemicals to increase muscle water-holding capacity, injection of fish byproducts back into the fillet, and water addition are such instances.
Fruit juices in high demand are reported to be substituted and adulterated using cheap fruit juice. Orange juice is adulterated with other citrus juices when their prices fall. Adulteration of pomegranate juice with natural grape pigments to represent the actual color is practiced. Adulteration with poor quality juice and peel extract is another well-known practice. Commercialization of reconstituted juice made from concentrate as fresh squeezed juice is also practiced. The admixing of vinegar derived from a C3 or C4 plant is widely accomplished due to economic advantage and availability. Admixing various proportions of wine vinegars and alcohol vinegars to reduce production cost and selling as pure wine vinegar is another frequently reported malpractice.
Edible wheat consists of common wheat and durum wheat. The coarse flour obtained from durum wheat is the primary ingredient of pasta. Pasta made from 100% durum wheat is considered of the highest quality since it imparts unique and firmer dough. Therefore, there is a price difference between these two types of wheats that exists in the market and tempts the manufacturers to admix common wheat with durum wheat. Due to the growing interest in organic food, organic wheat flour has a huge market demand and is often adulterated with common wheat flour, cassava flour, and corn flour. Their visual detection is quite difficult, as organic wheat flour is nearly the same in color as cassava flour and corn flour.
Another widespread adulteration is the admixing of high-quality rice with low quality rice. Rice of different varieties are cultivated which can be admixed fraudulently during the cultivation, harvesting, transporting, and processing. As most varieties of rice are almost similar to look at, their visual discrimination is nearly impossible. Basmati rice, grown in India and Pakistan, holds a prime position among the more than 5000 rice varieties all over the world for its high quality and fragrance. It is sold at 2–3 times higher in price than other varieties in the market. These phenomena provide an incentive for dishonest merchants to adulterate Basmati rice with non-Basmati rice, such as Jasmine rice, long grain rice, etc.
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