Cumin Seeds

Details

Cumin from the Unjha belt in north Gujarat, sortex-cleaned, destoned and graded, sold as whole seed. Fake jeera is a real trade in India and it is not subtle: grass seed or broom-grass stalk is bound with charcoal dust or molasses, dyed, shaped and sold as cumin, and units doing it have been raided and shut down more than once. It works because nobody looks closely at jeera and because a dyed seed and a real one look the same in a heap. There is a test you can run at your own counter: rub a pinch hard between your palms. Real cumin leaves an oily smell and no colour. Dyed seed blackens your skin. The quieter cheats sit underneath: stones and dust for weight, and spent cumin already stripped of its oil and dried back.

• No dyed or moulded fake seed, no grass seed, no broom-grass stalk
• No charcoal dust, no molasses coating, no added colour, and you can check that yourself in ten seconds
• No spent or de-oiled seed, volatile oil measured at 2.5 percent and above per lot
• Purity 99 percent and above, extraneous matter under 0.5 percent, stones and grit out
• No ethylene oxide fumigation
• Real jeera is a dull greenish-brown and the seeds are not all one size, because a graded natural seed is not a moulded one
• Whole seed, so it needs a hot pan before it gives you anything.