The Way to Identify Counterfeit Saffron

The Way to Identify Counterfeit Saffron

The Way to Identify Counterfeit Saffron
Fars news agency: Limited production and high prices of saffron have caused a lot of cheating on this plant, which includes the addition of saffron-like plant and chemicals. Various methods have been developed to determine these frauds, most of which are based on morphological, anatomical, and chemical tests.

Saffron is made from the stigmas and the bottom region of the flower, usually yellow, reddish and orange red, and simply separated from the flag, and this is less visible in other herbs. The three branches of saffron are shaped like a buggy, and the free part of it has a toothed hole. The best type of saffron is saffron, which is called the screw girl, that is, 100% normal, and the head is rooted intact, like a string of red yarn, down to white and half above it red.

Safflower plant instead of saffron

To cheat in saffron, they use the flag of safflower and similar plants and mix it with saffron. The most important counterfeit that is made of saffron is safflower, which is similar to saffron and can cause yellow color, and some of the corn or cherry blossoms are used and painted it with saffron-colored artificial colors. One of the issues of saffron fraud is the use of chemical and artificial colors to paint saffron, which is unlawful in using saffron in the saffron industry. The most commonly used colors are tartrazine, Orange II, amaranth, sandstone, Ponceau 4R, quinoline juice. In this fraud, because the root of the ear is straight and the flag of the saffron is curvy, it helps to detect cheating.

The possibility of further cheating in saffron powder

Saffron powder is also used in safflower powder, and since this powder is almost red, it is mixed with corn pollen to adjust its color. Saffron, especially in powder form, can be falsified more. You may also mix saffron and mix it with red soil to gain weight, or add white saffron flavor to saffron solution, along with other ingredients in the stigma. Sometimes they mix ingredients such as turmeric root, cauliflower and spring flowers with saffron.

The method of identifying fake saffron

There are several methods for detecting fake saffron, which are referred to as:

1- If you put the saffron blanks between paper and paper or pressed paper, there should not be any stains of fat.

2. The color of the saffron blades is not soluble in gasoline, that is, if you put a few blanks in gasoline, it should not be petrol.

3. Natural saffron has a bright red color and a pleasant flavor and a bit bitter smell.

4. Saffron in concentrated sulfuric acid produces blue color, which gradually turns into violet, cherry red and finally brown.

5- It is possible to put saffron pieces on the butane gas. In this case, the saffron creates a purple violet that is related to potassium. Sometimes it may cause orange color, but in the case of fake yellow saffron it creates Becomes

6- To 0.1 g of powdered saffron, stir 10 ml of distilled water for 15 minutes, then smooth the solution and add 1 g of charcoal and shake, then leave it for 10 minutes and refine. Color of saffron with charcoal disappears. Therefore, the presence of color in the final solution will indicate the presence of an organic color.

7- Adding 50 ml of chloroform to some saffron, the chloroform solution will almost be colored, while the color of the yellow indicates the presence of flowers with carotenoid color, capsicum fruit or aniline dyes.

It should be noted that the abovementioned cases are preliminary identification and full identification of saffron is carried out with accurate laboratory methods and is carried out by authorized laboratories which requires precision measuring devices such as spectrophotometers. The color strength of saffron is one of the major determinants of the quality of saffron, which is evaluated by measuring the amount of color compounds in it at 443 nm wavelength by spectrophotometer.

source: fardanews /com