Health Hazards with Adulterated Spices: Save the “Onion Tears”

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We are crying for the 500% increase in onion price, we should save tears for the lead found in marketed powdered turmaric,that exceeded 500 times than national limit. The FDA has released detailed import alerts for lead-adulterated turmeric, naming importing companies and the country of origin. All are from Bangladesh and India. The researchers from Stanford University, US make fun of in their recently published article "Turmeric means "yellow" in Bengali". The addition of wheat flour to powdered ginger with enough capsicum to restore the pungency and enough curcuma to maintain the natural color is a typical example of intentional adulteration. Cinnamon is at very high risk of fraudulent adulteration, substitution and dilution due to high price. Cassia, a low-grade cinnamon like bark which is toxic also, imported from China is cunningly added and mixed to cinnamon bulk. Cassia barks are tougher and thicker. They rarely give out any aromatic smell. Argemone seeds are the common adulterant for mustard seeds. Green cardamom pods are often adulterated with “used” cardamom pods, or ones from which volatile oils have already been extracted. Sawdust is the common adulterant used in cumin. Candied corn silk and colored plastic often make their way into dainty boxes of saffron. This is also known as sophistication, which means no stone is left untouched to produce a food item which would probably look even better than a naturally grown/produced food and food products.

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Photo by Nikhita Singhal on Unsplash

Photo by Nikhita Singhal on Unsplash

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