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How can I test for lead in my tumeric? Edit: found this page which is amazing https://eatrightindia.gov.in/dart/
It doesn't list a test for lead in turmeric powder , unfortunately.
I have a friend who strongly gravitates towards non-traditional solutions for every health & medical problem. Upon hearing that I had developed cancer, she whipped up a batch of turmeric-infused notions and potions for me, which I appreciate. I haven't touched them yet. Maybe I'll get them tested first; the last thing I need right now is lead poisoning!
There might not be a practical way to keep exposure to a substance low enough to be safe but that sort of nuance is not dramatic enough to sell an article!
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1. The Water Test: Take a glass of warm water and add a teaspoon of your turmeric powder to it. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes. If the turmeric powder settles down, it is pure. If it doesn’t settle to the bottom and leaves a dark yellow colour, it is adulterated. 2. The Palm Test: Take a pinch of your turmeric powder and rub it into the palm of your hand for a few seconds, then turn your palm over. Pure turmeric will s…
Where can I find a source for your first point? This site[1] mentions this test as a way to detect adulteration by artificial coloring in turmeric powder, not adulteration by lead.
I suppose your turmeric could fail the test, and you could decide that the failure is not a sufficient proof of lead presence, because it might be a different lead-free artificial coloring that caused the test failure. That is absolutely your right to decide.
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- "E.g., if I buy turmeric from Walmart or Whole Foods, can I safely assume that they're monitoring the product streams for lead?" You can safely assume absolutely nothing. https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/your-herb... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29375003 ( "Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead (consumerreports.org)" ) (2021) - "The lack of regulation leaves much of the…
ConsumerLab tested many brands of both spice and supplement for lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury, and published the amounts they found in each brand: https://www.consumerlab.com/reviews/turmeric-curcumin-supple... Paywall
I don't understand how lead pigments are still legal in some parts of the world at all. What kind of things need a bright yellow color that will slowly poison you if you touch it? Also, those handheld XRF spectrometers are amazing tech. I wish they were more affordable.
People and companies knowingly contaminating food products with poisons like lead, should be put in jail. Companies knowingly selling such products, should be at least heavily fined, possibly prosecuted as well. Bottom line, this is clearly poisoning (and killing people) to make a few extra bucks. There should be no leniency whatsoever for this clear evil.
54,000 hospitalized and 6 dead from intentional milk contamination
> A number of trials were conducted by the Chinese government resulting in two executions, three sentences of life imprisonment, two 15-year prison sentences, and the firing or forced resignation of seven local government officials and the Director of the Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ). The former chairwoman of China's Sanlu dairy was sentenced to life in prison.
I'm a little surprised at the initial confusion about the source of lead, or perhaps it's the way the article has been written. As someone who grew up in India, our school textbooks in the 90s had a list of common food adulterants, and turmeric adulteration with lead chromate was common knowledge to middle schoolers. I recall the curriculum included how to detect adulteration with simple at home tests. After turmeric…
This reminds me of how scurvy was apparently well known in the age of sail but sort of forgotten with the industrial revolution. It showed back up again in Arctic expeditions from what I understand.
I don't understand how lead pigments are still legal in some parts of the world at all. What kind of things need a bright yellow color that will slowly poison you if you touch it? Also, those handheld XRF spectrometers are amazing tech. I wish they were more affordable.
> "Why? For the same reason our reactors do not have containment buildings around them, like those in the West. For the same reason we don't use properly enriched fuel in our cores. For the same reason we are the only nation that builds water-cooled, graphite-moderated reactors with a positive void coefficient. It's cheaper." ~ Valery Legasov, Chernobyl
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I suggest asking your Indian friends where they buy their spices from, and check out your local Indian grocery store - the spices are from major Indian brands and undergo a lot of testing, with additional certification for export to the US.
> check out your local Indian grocery store - the spices are from major Indian brands and undergo a lot of testing, with additional certification for export to the US. Well, uh, I'm no expert, having just read about this here, today. But what you are saying flies in the face of half of the comments here, doesn't it? What makes you sure that the "local Indian grocery store" is getting high-quality, tested spices?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5415259/
The product recalls mentioned are all American brands, and their origin is unspecified - other than South Asia, turmeric is also exported from China, SE Asia, the Caribbean and South America. In the absence of FDA guidelines on lead levels in spices, this study has used the lead levels in candy as the threshold (0.1 ppm) The study also highlights a previous case study in Boston where 4 pediatric cases had lead exposure - of the 4, only one had detectable lead in the family's turmeric - at a level of 1.4 ppm. This was a 12-month-old baby, so wasn't consuming the turmeric, and the case study doesn't suggest he was.
The Indian food safety standards restrict lead in spices to below 2.5 ppm, with turmeric especially tested for lead chromate (FSSAI standards allow lead upto 10 ppm (!!!) in turmeric, while AGMARK allows only upto 2.5 ppm). Turmeric being exported from India to the USA has several additional mandatory certifications required, for other dyes like Sudan I - IV, aflatoxins, pesticides, etc. Since the FDA has no limits published on lead, the Indian limits of 2.5 ppm probably apply. Is that an acceptable level? Probably not great, and there is no safe level of lead. However, lead will show up in any agricultural product, so we need a reasonable 'acceptable' range. For me and most other Indians who consume turmeric on a daily basis, we defer to the Indian certifications.