Reasons aplenty for adulteration in jaggery

Catering to the demands of the consumer, exigencies of the labour market and the non-availability of sugarcane are at the centre of rampant jaggery adulteration in the state.

The latest in the long list of adulteration techniques used by the industry is adding in rejected sugar and jaggery from other parts of the country.

Last Friday, jaggery unit owners blocked a truck that was allegedly transporting poor quality and rejected jaggery from Maharashtra to be mixed in with local jaggery.

Food Safety officials, accompanied by farmers and APMC members, raided the unit in question and registered a case against the owners.

Read | Jaggery, a healthy alternative to sugar?

S Venkatesh, a jaggery unit owner, says labour is another challenge.

“Most of the labourers are hired from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. Nobody knows how much chemicals to mix in with the juice. The labourers use their own calculation to decide on the ratio. The demand for bright yellow jaggery also forces growers to use more chemicals,” Venkatesh says.

Dr K V Keshavaiah, Sugarcane Agronomist at the Jaggery Park set up in VC Farm of Gandhi Krishi Vigyan Kendra (GKVK) in Mandya says jaggery is a better sweetener than sugar if manufactured in the right method.

“Even the slightest deviation in methods makes it worse than sugar. Increased use of industrial-grade chemicals, which are largely sodium compounds, results in the hygroscopic phenomenon, due to which inversion of sugar (fructose is converted into glucose) happens, thereby affecting the quality of jaggery. Sodium compounds absorb moisture and begin to melt, affecting the shelf life of the product. Further, when these chemicals are consumed over a prolonged period of time, they will severely impact our health,” he says.

“Jaggery requires sugarcane that has a high percentage of sucrose (20%) and less glucose besides a high degree of juice purity (90 to 95%),” says Dr S N Swamy Gowda, another scientist working on sugarcane breeds at VC Farm.

“Usually, the cane has to be crushed and converted into jaggery within 24 hours of the harvest. But due to logistical issues, most units crush canes that are as old as 4 days to a week. By then, the sugarcane would have witnessed natural inversion of sugar and non-sugar compounds like phenols, polyphenol, pectin and pigments are accumulated in large quantities affecting the taste of the jaggery,” says Gowda.

Somashankar Gowda, president of the Jaggery Units Association, says an owner faces pressure to crush cane regardless of the delay due to the money involved.

Jaggery from sugar

A loss in quality is sometimes compensated with second or third-grade sugar and jaggery, sourced for as low as Rs 30 - 32 per kilo, while jaggery is usually sold at Rs 40 per kilo, leaving a profit margin of Rs 8 per kilo.

“However, in the entire process, the quality of jaggery is affected due to the chemicals that are already present in the rejected sugar or jaggery,” says Gowda.

Similarly, the migrant labourers need to be provided with work throughout the year, failing which many returns home. “To keep them occupied, a few owners force farmers to harvest sugarcane between 9 to 10 months (the natural harvesting time is 10 to 11 months). With less sugar content, they are forced to add additives,” says Thimme Gowda.

As Dr Keshavaiah explains, the misconception that sugarcane requires high levels of nitrogen has farmers using up to 350 to 500 grams of nitrogen for an acre of sugarcane crop, where just 100 gram will do.

“Sugarcane actually requires more phosphorous. The excess use of nitrogen results in dark specks forming on the jaggery,” he says.

The trend of monocropping across Mandya has worsened the problem. The soil organic carbon content, which has to be between 0.4% and 0.5% is estimated to be 0.8% to 1% in Mandya.

“Farmers need to cultivate sugarcane in an intercropping pattern with other legume plants and use organic manure like compost, vermicompost, leaf compost. We advise farmers to plant canes at a distance of five feet, but most of the farmers plant them at a distance of three feet, affecting the concentration of sugar content in cane,” Dr Gowda says.