New Delhi, Aug. 15 -- There are few things more routine in human life than eating and drinking. For the average Indian, it happens every morning, afternoon and evening--several times a day and every day of life. Yet we are far more willing to treat terrorism, environmental pollution or an epidemic as matters demanding more urgent public attention than we are to confront a threat that reaches us at the dining table.

Food adulteration rarely arrives with the drama of a terrorist attack or the visibility of a polluted river. It is quieter and, precisely for that reason, more insidious an assault on something we consume routinely and trust almost instinctively. We have built elaborate systems to protect the nation from exceptional threats, y...