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It’s Time to Clear Your Doubts about Your Red Chilli Powder……….

It’s the time of the year again to stock up the red chilli powder and as Indians we definitely look out for quality but at the most economic price. But, little are we aware of the things around us. There have been several speculations about red chili powder adulteration in the past few years.

In 2016, huge quantity of highly adulterated, misleading or false-labeled chili powder was seized in the state of Telangana. According to the health minister of the state, the adulterated chili powder contained chemicals like red oxide and rhodamine-B. And, the powder appeared to be very much same as the original red chilli powder and no one can tell difference between them. Only clinically tests were the way to do so. These chemical products were used to create fake powder that looks same like the red chilli powder and to everyone’s astonishment the effects of these chemicals were proven to be the most hazardous on the human body. They were said to cause respiratory problems, gastro-intestinal problems and could affect the lungs of the consumers really bad.

Most often brick powder, crushed wood particles, talc powder, starch and husk are found in the chili powder. These are added by the chilli powder manufacturers to increase its weight and make it bulkier. Moreover, artificial colors are also being used to enrich the color of the powder so that it can appear attractive to the customers. Many instances of pesticides addition have also come forward in the recent times. These are added by the unscrupulous red chilli powder manufacturers to cut the costs and get monetary gains with negligence of how badly this is going to affect the health of people and environment.

Have you known that for the want of saving up a few bucks, you are actually ending up risking your precious health? The clinical tests on the adulterated Indian chili powder have shown disastrous impact of health of human beings when consumed over a longer period of time. Adulterated powder of red chillies can cause poisoning, digestive disorders, blurred vision, nausea, lung and breathing problems and also cancer.

So, this time of the year when you go buying chili powder, make sure you are not getting your hands on one of the adulterated falsely labeled packages and how shall you do this? Here are a few tips for the consumers of how they can find if the chili powder they are buying is of good quality or fake adulterated one with contaminants.

  1. Check It With Water

Add a teaspoon of your chili powder to glass of plain water. If the water changes the color, then your powder has got artificial colors in it. And, in case if it turns reddish brown, then your chili powder has got brick powder in it for sure. If your chilli powder is pure and unadulterated, then firstly it will not dissolve in water and moreover, it will cause no color change as well.

  1. Iodine Solution

You can add few drops of iodine solution to your powdered spice in order to find if there is any starch added to it or not. If your powder turns blue in color, then you can be sure of starch presence in it.

You can avoid buying adulterated spice powder by taking care of a few things like

  1. Buying it only from trusted brands or red chilli powder suppliers that are certified.
  2. Purchasing whole spices and grinding them on own because probability of adulteration with whole spices is almost negligible.
  3. Avoid buying chilli powder with extra shine as they can be adulterated for sure.
  4. Check out for FSSAI logo on the package and AGMARK certification for promptness of purity.
  5. Read the manufacturing date, manufacture and manufacturer details, best before date in order to ensure that red chilli you are buying is of good quality and fresh.
  6. Do a thorough research on trusted brands for red chilli powder. The best red chilli powder manufacturers will be transparent about their manufacturing process and will have all the relevant information right up on their website, packages and social media platforms.
  7. You can always check out for yourself for the contaminants in the spice powder at the time of buying.

So, this time when you buy chili powder to the year stock, just make sure you are not getting your hands on cheaply priced adulterated powder. Go for pure and remain safe.