Adulteration
Adulteration is not difficult to determine since there are tests that can be made to detect sources of contamination such as rodents (hair, pellet, or urine), insects, dirt and other detritus.
Also, if a food is putrid this can be detected by the ordinary human sense, a fact this is well known and accepted.
However, the detection of decomposition is not easy and often scientist do not agree on what constitutes decomposition of a particular food. Citations based in the development of a food, therefore, frequently have to be settled in court.
Regarding activities that may be present in foods, the administration and the industry known that certain chemicals are toxic and cannot be added to foods at all.
The FDA has a GRAS (generally regard as safe) list that specifies which chemicals may be added for foods and, in many instances how much may be added to a particular food.
Many compounds on this list come under what is called the Grandfather Clause, these chemicals having been used in foods for years with no apparent ill effect.
For some chemicals that can be added to foods and for any new chemicals that will be added, tests have been or will be made by feeding several kinds of animals a diet containing the chemical over a period of several generations.
The results of such tests are determined by observations in the weight and general health of the animals, as well as their ability to breed, and on autopsies and chemical tests for specific enzyme activities and so on.
Time, trained personal and special facilities are required for testing as new food additive.
This is a very expensive process, requiring as a rule, the outlay of several hundred thousand dollars and no producer of such a new compound is apt to initiate such testing, which must satisfy the FDA, unless he is certain that the new additive will provide specific advantage and have great utilities.
Adulteration
