Coriander Powder

Details

Coriander powder, dhania, from Eagle-grade seed grown around Kota in Rajasthan, destoned and screened as whole seed and only then ground. It is the ground spice an Indian kitchen gets through faster than any other, which is exactly why it is the easiest one to stretch. The seed itself is cheap, but the husk and stalk around it are free, so a mill that grinds the plant residue in along with the seed makes its margin on chaff nobody can see. The second cheat is spent coriander: seed already run through an oleoresin plant, stripped of its oil, dried and re-ground. It looks identical and smells of very little. Starch makes up whatever weight is still missing.

• No husk, chaff or stalk ground in as bulk
• No spent or de-oiled seed, volatile oil measured at 0.3 percent and above on every lot
• No starch, rice flour or maize flour
• No added colour and no anti-caking agent
• Acid-insoluble ash under 0.5 percent, which is the number that catches grit, sand and husk
• No ethylene oxide fumigation
• The colour is a dull greenish-brown rather than the bright even khaki of a powder carrying chaff
• It goes flat quickly once opened, so the 100 g pouch is usually the sensible buy even though the 500 g is cheaper per kilo
• Nothing in it stops it caking in the monsoon.