Consumers’ Knowledge of Food Adulteration and Commonly Used Methods of Detection

Table 5

Common adulterants in food items reported by the respondents.

Food items	Adulterants	Frequency	%
Groundnut paste	Kontonte flour	55	70.5
	Corn flour	12	15.4
	Do not know	5	6.4
	Water	1	1.3
	Vegetable oil	2	2.6
	Colour	2	2.6
	Flour and oil	1	1.3
Powdered pepper	Food colour	30	34.1
	Pear seed flour	12	13.6
	Spices	1	1.1
	Flour and colour	9	10.2
	Do not know	10	11.4
	Sawdust	1	1.1
	Cola nut	22	25.0
	Prekese	1	1.1
	Maggi	1	1.1
	Flour	1	1.1
Tomato paste	Starch	4	28.6
	Colour	8	57.1
	Bissap leaves	1	7.1
	Do not know	1	7.1
Honey	Burnt sugar	37	69.8
	Do not know	3	5.7
	Water	8	15.1
	Burnt foam	3	5.7
	Starch	2	3.8
Tomato powder	Food colour	6	60.0
	Wheat flour	1	10.0
	Do not know	2	20.0
	Colour plus unknown substance	1	10.0
Dzowoe	Corn flour	1	100.0
Light soup	Yam or cassava stock	6	85.7
	Corn flour	1	14.3
Foreign rice	Local rice	5	80.0
	Rubber rice	1	20.0
Roselle juice (sobolo)	Food colour	3	100.0
Fufu	Palm oil	4	80.0
	Guava leaves	1	20.0
Banku	Gari as cassava dough	2	100.0
Kokonte flour	Corn flour	3	100.0
Wheat flour	Corn flour	2	50.0
	Poultry feed	2	50.0
Fried yam	Colour	2	66.7
	Sugar	1	33.3
Bread	Citrine	2	100.0
Powdered spices	Sawdust	1	25.0
	Spoiled spices	1	25.0
	Industrial chemicals	2	50.0
Kenkey	Cassava dough	8	100.0
Palm oil	Sudan dye	40	97.6
	Starch	1	2.4
Coconut oil	Shea butter (melted)	1	100.0
Milk powder	Bread flour	1	33.3
	Nondairy creamer	2	66.7
Ginger powder	Do not know	2	100.0
Ice cream	Colour	2	66.7
	Flour	1	33.3
Cooked beans	Saltpetre	2	100.0
Beef	Colour	15	100.0
Turmeric	Colour	2	50.0
	Sawdust	1	25.0
	Yellow dye	1	25.0
Shrimp powder	Fish head (dried)	1	100.0
Agushi powder	Flour	1	100.0
Cassava dough	Salt	1	100.0
Milk	Water	7	63.6
	Flour	2	18.2
	Starch powder	1	9.1
	Chalk powder	1	9.1
Olive oil	Tea tree oil	1	100.0
Sugar	Chalk powder	12	85.7
	Flour	1	7.1
	Washing powder	1	7.1
Black pepper	Papaya seed	5	100.0
Coffee seed powder	Tamarind seed powder	2	100.0
Kebab powder	Pear seed powder	1	100.0
Tea leave	Coloured leaves	1	100.0
Common salt	Kadamire brick powder	1	14.3
	Flour	6	85.7
Fish	Oil	3	100.0
Cinnamon sticks	Bark cassia plant	1	100.0
Cummins seeds	Sawdust	1	100.0
Pulses	Dyes	1	100.0
Tea	Artificial colouring agents	2	100.0
Jollof	Colour	3	100.0
Fruits and vegetables	Cobalt	1	100.0