Adulteration and Spurious Products Quiz

Study Notes

Adulteration

Adulteration involves adding inferior substances to products, impacting quality and potentially health.
Common examples: mustard oil adulterated with rape seed oil, black pepper with dry papaya seeds, petrol with kerosene.

Sale of Spurious Products

Selling products with no value, falsely posing as genuine items.
Primarily concerns medicines, drugs, and healthcare products, posing serious health risks.
Instances of injections containing water or glucose water, and bottles holding only distilled water.

False Weights and Measures

Exploiting customers using inaccurate weights and measures to sell less than the advertised quantity.
Affects products sold by weight (vegetables, cereals, sugar) and length (textile fabrics, suit pieces).
Involves using inaccurate scales, measuring tapes, and containers with misleading labels.
Additionally, goods may be weighed alongside packaging, adding to the weight without corresponding value.

Sale of Duplicates

Selling locally made goods as imported, claiming superior quality and higher prices.
Common in various products like washing soap, detergent powders, tube lights, jams, edible oil, and even medicines.
Brands are replicated using generic products.

Hoarding and Black Marketing

Intentionally withholding essential commodities from the market to create artificial scarcity and increase prices.
Black marketing involves selling hoarded goods secretly at inflated prices.
Occurs due to supply shortages, often witnessed with products like onions, leading to high prices.

Tie-in-Sales

Requiring customers to purchase additional goods as a condition for buying a desired product.
Alternatively, customers may be required to pay pre-emptive after-sales service charges.
For instance, gas stoves may be purchased as a requirement for new gas connections, or TV sets may require advanced payment for a year's service.

Misleading Advertisements

Deceptive marketing tactics falsely portraying products or services as superior in quality, grade, or standard.
Advertisements may exaggerate the need for a product or service, misleading consumers into unnecessary purchases.

Description

Test your knowledge on adulteration, the sale of spurious products, and the use of false weights and measures. This quiz covers key concepts and examples in these areas, highlighting their impact on consumer safety and product quality. Discover how these practices can affect health and affect the marketplace.