The dangers of chemically produced sabudana or sago

Sago or Sabudana is a popular staple food consumed widely. It is a ready to cook agricultural food product. Sabudana is considered to be an optimal source of nutrition. It is a common practice in India to use sabudana as a favourite form of nutrition for infants and sick persons. People incorporate sago in their diets during various fasts. Sabudana is also used in a variety of dishes such as desserts like 'Kheer'. It is also readily consumed in dishes like Khichadi , vada, bonda. The sole raw material used for manufacturing Sabudana is 'tapioca root' internationally known as 'cassava'. Harmful chemicals  like calcium hypochlorite, phosphoric acid, and sodium hypochlorite are used for bleaching, while processing tapioca to sago starch and the latter to pearls. The chemically produced sago can head towards adverse health issues such as cancer and kidney diseases.

Commercially, trees are harvested. The trunks are stripped of leaves and cut into 1 m segments for handling. The segments are split lengthwise and fed into slicers that slice the pith from the bark. Alternatively, the bark is removed from sections of the logs that are then fed into a mechanical rasper that rasps the pith into small pieces. The pith is fed into a hammer mill and discharged into water where a starch slurry is formed. Starch slurry is passed through a series of centrifugal sieves to separate the coarse fibers. The starch can be washed several times to improve purity. The purified starch is dewatered in a rotary vacuum drum dryer and dried with hot air. One palm trunk can yield 180–250 kg dw of sago starch.

Sago starch is known to vary in colour from gray to white. It can be bleached with bisulfite but the starch still tends to discolour with prolonged storage. Mature palms are needed for the production of high-quality starch. Immature pith contains impurities, and starch made from it is of inferior quality and has a greater tendency for browning. Starch quality varies with its location in the trunk and growth conditions.

 Sago factories were previously using tapioca by scrapping the upper layer and washing it in water.

But now they allegedly are cleaning it by using bleach liquor, concentrated sulphuric acid and phosphoric acid to achieve pure white colour

Sago should always be produced in an organic way. It needs to be tested in a referral lab to check if there are signs of adulteration. It should be tested in a lab and then it can go for selling in the market. The Chemicals commonly used in Sago processing are:

Bleaching Agents

Calcium hypochlorite

Sodium hypochlorite

Acids

Sulphuric acid

Hydrochloric acid

Phosphoric acid

Artificial Whitening Agents

2-B- Con or Tinopal

Consumers should keep an eye for any insect infestation, live/dead insects, dirt, extraneous matter,added coloring matter, visible mould growth, bleaching whitening agents or optical whiteners, other sweetening agents or any other adulterant before cooking the sago. It increases the risk of health hazards.

According to certain adulterants, by some simple tests they can identify the chemicals added to sago. Chew some sago, if it gives you a gritty feeling, it is adulterated. Also, burn the sago, if it swells it is pure and won't leave an ash behind, otherwise it would leave a good amount of ash.

1. To check the purity of your Sabudana, you need to burn a bit of it. Pure sago will leave no ash, while the adulterated sago will burn to ash.
2.  Chew some sago, if it gives you a gritty feeling, it is adulterated.
3. Take a glass of water. Add 2 teaspoons of Sabudana and mix thoroughly. Pure Sabudana will not leave any colour. Adulterated item will leave colour immediately in water.

Chemically manufactured Sabudana is quite harmful to one's health. Adulterated Sabudana can have a negative impact on health. It can lead to toxicity in the body but can even lead to body paralysis or eventually death. Thus, it becomes imperative to identify these adulterants. Some of the adulterants are highly toxic for the body leading to;

Heart failure

Liver disorders

Kidney disorders &  many more

Adulteration has a detrimental effect on the quality of the product causing hindrance to the nutritive value of the product leading to nutritive deficiency in our body.