Tumeric: A Food Fraud Win for Everyone’s Favourite Yellow Spice

Turmeric, like all spices, is vulnerable to food fraud. Its vulnerabilities are related to its value (expensive), its supply chains (complicated, with many small farmers and traders) and its physical properties (colour, aroma, powdered forms).

Turmeric was found to be ‘suspicious’ with respect to adulteration, at levels of 11% in a Europe-wide survey of 1885 samples of herbs and spices in 2021. A common form of food fraud adulteration for spices is the addition of undeclared and unapproved colourants such as textile dyes…