by phendrenad2
7 subcomments
- I think this NPR article is too quick to put a positive spin on this. They have made a nice little story here with a happy ending. Farmers had blackened turmeric -> they used a random yellow die they found -> massive lead spike in everyone's bloodstream -> Americans came in with a xray gun and saved the day -> no more lead in the blood.
But if you ascribe even the slightest but of agency to any of the non-Americans involved, you have to wonder if this problem will come back.
by infinitifall
9 subcomments
- I'm put off by how this is framed as a detective story. Pesticides that contain heavy metals and other carcinogens are a well known issue, with India (and South Asia more generally) being the worst affected.
> You'll never guess the culprit
Not knowing about turmeric comes off as deeply ignorant when a billion people consume it as part of their daily diet.
> They don't know that this is harmful for human health
Let me assure you that they absolutely do and they couldn't care less. This also makes it seem like poor clueless farmers are to blame while mega-corporations that process, package, market and distribute these spices are never given even a passing mention!
- I grew up in India and now live in the US. My mom recently got some ground turmeric from our own farm when she visited us. I am was stunned by how much more duller, brownish-yellow it was compared to the turmeric I buy in Indian stores in the US. Those are usually really bright yellows.
Now, I am really scared that even stuff sold in California is probably lead paint tainted turmeric.
- I wonder if this has survived the recent cutbacks to USAID?
And recently they are celebrating some big news on the lead fighting front: This week, UNICEF and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a new $150 million initiative to combat lead poisoning
by mandown2308
0 subcomment
- What I got by reading the paper: loose tumeric powder and polished tumeric root are the main "culprits" because they are contaminated with Lead Chromate (chemical used in paintings for yellow color.)
If you're using branded/packaged tumeric powder, or natural unpolished tumeric root, you're still good as a tumeric consumer in South Asia (though the paper differentiates branded vs packaged tumeric in Table 2, but does not explicitly explain the difference.)
Also, Patna in Bihar is the major source of Lead-adulterated tumeric (in the forms mentioned above) in India, and any exports of tumeric to other places from Patna could be harmful. Lead contamination in Guwahati, Assam is mostly found in imported tumeric from Patna.
- I immediately tested the 5 year old Sadaf tumeric in my kitchen cabinet using a 3M lead testing kit I happened to have in my house. Thankfully it came out negative!
- For anyone in the UK concerned about Turmeric, looks like the FSA are on the case (and not just about lead).
https://www.food.gov.uk/research/turmeric-survey
- Although the headline sort of reveals the culprit, it's still sort of clickbaity; I think it ought to explain that it was specifically lead chromate added as a yellow pigment to the turmeric in Bangladesh in order to improve its salability, because the best turmeric is naturally a very similar bright yellow.
by loopdoend
6 subcomments
- Wish there were some way to detect impurities like this at home.
by biohcacker84
1 subcomments
- Led, mercury, cadmium and arsenic are showing up in so many foods. In rice in spinach and obvious in fish.
Microplastics and PFAS in fruits and fish and everything else.
And the most recent TV report on cadmium in spinach, I watched, told me to have a diversified diet.
Diversified into WHAT?
by throwawaymaths
1 subcomments
- this week, same pigment:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/09/china/china-lead-poisoning-ti...
by ashwinsundar
1 subcomments
- You can buy dried whole turmeric at Indian stores. Take it home and grind it to powder in a magic bullet. Based on the article, it's harder to hide the bright yellow lead chromate coloring when it's used on whole turmeric, versus ground turmeric.
by mixmastamyk
0 subcomment
- I put our "Ginger and Tumeric"[1] Tea from Trader Joe's into a glass as in Test 15 at: https://eatrightindia.gov.in/dart/#spices-condiments15
Unfortunately it looks halfway between the two pictures, although that might be from the Ginger, Orange, and other ingredients. :-/
[1] https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/organic-ginger-...
- Reminds me of the Henna problem. People think / expect Henna to be darker than it is so in some countries they added paraphenylenediamine to it.
Paraphenylenediamine is toxic!
- Why do food producers need to do these fake coloring schemes? They are poisoning the well. In this day and age these ugly practices of the past are discoverable. I don’t care for ugly colors if the tradeoff is toxicity.
by khelavastr
1 subcomments
- Lack of firearms regulations stops public action against lead poisoners. In South America, where street gangs are far more common, you don't see rampant lead pollution the same way.
Nobody dumps lead in narco territories because order of law is so much better enforced than relatively lawless democratic countries like Bangladesh.
by amriksohata
0 subcomment
- I can imagine big american pharma pushing this - no doubt lead might have leaked in but they would not want something natural to pip their profits
by genewitch
3 subcomments
- <nevermind>
by prairieroadent
4 subcomments
- there has to be a way for us as a society to introduce a level of accountability into our so called "food" supply chain without the burden of regulation... perhaps it's as simple as spending more educating our kids about agriculture
amendment: seems to be an unpopular take... my point being regulation is a workaround for a population that is worst than uneducated, miseducated, especially in regards to agriculture and "food" supply chain... if kids were provided with an actual education and not miseducated on the subject then the demand for on-demand food testing would go up, and prices for said testing would eventually go down after supply rises to meet demand increasing competition thus encouraging technological innovations to come in and lower prices
amendment ii: in a competitive market where all participants are thoroughly educated and the consumer is armed with the ability to test their food frequently then a market would likely emerge where consumers buy directly from farmers who out of market forces publish test alongside their crop
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