[no_butterscotch]

I wonder if this turmeric spread and was sold in the West. My mother recently started taking "golden turmeric" and insists that it's a cure for a lot of ills. Maybe that's true I don't know, she sent me some articles a couple years ago. It was clear that she was influenced by Facebook groups.

Hopefully the turmeric she takes is safe :(

[morsch]

Fwiw a study done in Germany in 2022 found no traces of lead in 19 turmeric products of all price ranges.

https://www.oekotest.de/essen-trinken/Kurkuma-Labor-findet-M...

[lewisjoe]

Please ask her to stop taking turmeric often. I couldn't find the source, but I remember a liver specialist on twitter, calling out on such practice. He explained how he had patients with liver failure specifically due to regular turmeric intake, sold as natural medicine.

Please inform this to her.

[lionelholt]

Doctors aren't necessarily scientists. Anecdotal evidence isn't as strong as randomized controlled trials to establish causation. It could have been the high fat content of many recipes that call for turmeric.

[sacnoradhq]

The integrity of health and wellness products is always suspect. The MMS people are especially wingnuts.

It makes me think small-scale sales of spices, compounds, and ingredients on Amazon are at risk for adulteration.

Perhaps what we need is a simplified bluetooth mass spectrometer device with an app setup for testing purity of powdered substances from foods to medications. This seems like a ready-made Kickstarter project an Ivy/Pac-12 engineering bio+ee team could handle. MEMS devices using cheap IR photonics are in the pipe (no pun intended). Gas chrom is like listening to music on vinyl.

[more_corn]

Just convince her that it’s more magical (er, healthy) if she buys it fresh and grinds it herself.

It actually tastes better that way, richer and more earthy.

It does leave your fingers stained, but that is actually a benefit since it is a conversation starter.

[natdempk]

If you want to be extra safe, you can buy some for her from a safer supplier like: https://www.americanturmeric.com/lead-free-turmeric

[perihelions]

They expect us to be swayed by a stock photo of a laboratory?

https://www.americanturmeric.com/how-we-test-our-turmeric ("Laboratory Results - Buy With Confidence")

https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-laboratory-image24729... ("Royalty-Free Stock Photo: Laboratory with many operated science instrument [sic] and computer")

[natdempk]

It's a stock photo used on a website, did you expect them to go to the actual laboratory they worked with and take one?

I have no affiliation here, but they even listed the company they used for testing so presumably you could call/email them if you want further confirmation. None of this seems unreasonable to me, and I don't think a stock photo is a gotcha for product quality.

[londons_explore]

Many online sellers post a photo of their factories and workers as a way to demonstrate quality - ie. "look, we make out products with big expensive modern machines, not children doing it by hand". Some aliexpress sellers even post 20-30 pictures of different parts of the production process.

Posting a stock photo is trying to defraud buyers who expect to see the factory it is made in.

[perihelions]

There's a lack of forthrightness in publishing a stock photo without a disclaimer. "Lack of forthrightness" is an anti-signal. Stock photography on a commercial website is an anti-signal.

[maximinus_thrax]

> Stock photography on a commercial website is an anti-signal

Where do you expect stock photography to be used? Only in mock-ups and design pitches?

[pengaru]

> Where do you expect stock photography to be used? Only in mock-ups and design pitches?

As if something's existence alone justifies its (mis)use...

I'm reminded of the Invader Zim Hamstergeddon episode when the tanks arrive and one of the soldiers shouts "We've gotta use this stuff on something!"

[itsoktocry]

>They expect us to be swayed by a stock photo of a laboratory?

I don't think any picture of a lab would have any meaning to me, whatsoever. Is the product legit tested? That's all that matters. I don't care what the lab looks like.

[valarauko]

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.

[itsoktocry]

>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?

[valarauko]

Let's take one of the source studies linked in other comments and investigate:

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.

[Ctyra]

I use Indian grocery stores here in the US. I have not seen any brands with AGMARK. Do you have any recommendation for brands that I can trust?

[valarauko]

Sorry for the delay - just noticed this comment.

Looking at my own pantry of Indian branded spices I purchased from Indian grocery stores, I see they are packaged in the UAE and not India, and don't carry the AGMARK. I couldn't find any details on the certifications required for spices in the Emirates.