What Are 9 Ways to Recognize Real Saffron?

This is the question customers usually ask us! Saffron has been calling red gold because of its very high value and price. The high value of saffron has caused some profiteers do some manipulation in providing this valuable spice and sell counterfeit saffron to customers instead of the real saffron.

Nowadays, it is easy to diagnose the purity or non-purity of saffron in laboratories, but it is not easy for consumers to diagnose it. Manipulation in providing saffron is not limited to mixing a saffron-like plant with this product, but counterfeit saffron even involves making it heavier by using fat, honey, salt and sugar.

Here are some ways to distinguish real saffron from counterfeit saffron which helps you in this matter. Stay with us.

1- Real Saffron Color Brings Out Slowly

If you pour some pen ink into a glass of water, you will see the ink spreads quickly in the water and the water color becomes uniform. Therefore, if color has been used to prepare saffron or essential oil has been used to make it look better, after pouring it in water, if the color spread quickly in water, there is no doubt about the use of chemical color in it. But by pouring the original saffron in cold water, the coloring speed is much slower.

The color of the real saffron in water is orange-yellow and of course crystalline. The intense red color in water is not a good sign. The chemicals used for dying more saffron may be harmful to your health.

2- Real Saffron In Hot Water

Pour a little saffron in hot water (not boiling water), wait 5 minutes. After 5 minutes if color of the saffron string does not turn white, it indicates that it is real. But if color of the saffron strand changes and turns white after 5 minutes, it is a sign of artificial color.

3- Real Saffron Should Not Be Oily

Sometimes profiteers spray salt or oily water on saffron to increase its weight. An easy way to detect counterfeit saffron to which oil has been added is to pour some of it on white paper and press it on the paper with a finger for a few seconds. If you see traces of oil on the paper, fake saffron is in your hands.

Another way to identify it, is to first bring some water to boiling and pour water into a clean glass, then pour a few saffron strings into it and cover the glass with a lid. After ten minutes, if you see a layer of oil is on the surface of the water inside the glass, suspect that its fake.

4- Combine Saffron With Baking Soda

There is another test to distinguish genuine saffron from counterfeit. Use baking soda. Combine a little saffron and baking soda in a cup of water. If the final liquid is yellow, saffron is real, otherwise (producing red and some color like that) it is a counterfeit product.

5- Saffron Color

The color of real saffron is intense red and it does not have a bright and shiny color at all. So if you see saffron that sparkles and is very bright, you should doubt its authenticity.

6- Saffron In Cold Water

Put saffron in cold water and after a few minutes, take it between your fingers and rub your fingers together for a few minutes. Fake saffron is quickly pulverized. But the original saffron strands will not destroyed.

7- Taste Of Saffron

Saffron contains a compound called Picrocrocin, which is responsible for the taste of saffron and makes it taste bitter. Pure saffron has a bitter taste and is somewhat astringent and sharp and is never sweet. If it tastes sweet, honey has been added to it to make it heavier.

8- Saffron Shape

The real saffron tip is thick and get thinner when it reaches the end, and also the saffron strands have a curved shape. But the corn tassel is completely uniformly thin and straight (Corn silk is dyed and sold instead of saffron).

9- Petrol Is Not The Solvent Of Saffron

Saffron does not dissolve in petrol. To detect real saffron, you can put some saffron in petrol. If the petrol gets colored, it indicates that your saffron is not real.

Note: Try not to buy saffron powder, since its powder is the best way to cheat and it can only be diagnosis through a laboratory.