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Garlic is something dearly loved in Indian kitchens for adding flavour, besides the well-known health benefits connected with this bulb. Whether to spice a curry up or to lend those subtle depths to a broth, none can beat that pungent flavour and aroma of garlic. Increasingly, however, consumers have raised complaints about market sources selling them fake garlic. Imagine buying garlic, just to realize later that it is made of cement or other harmful products. It is becoming a very serious possibility, as recent reports have come from Maharashtra where this has proven to be a reality. With fake garlic entering homes, it's much more important now than ever to make sure what you're buying is the real deal. Recognizing real garlic will save your health while maintaining the flavour of that special preparation. Here are simple yet effective ways to identify fake garlic being supplied in the market.
How to Identify Fake Garlic
Check the Colour
Real garlic should naturally be off-white, with some speckling or blemishes. If what you're looking at is just way too white and there are no slight imperfections, that could blow a red flag. Fake garlic is often over-polished to look perfect; don't be baited by that positive attribute. Rather, go for a more natural appearance.
Texture
Real garlic heads are bumpy, with the skin protruding from the surface due to the natural growth of the head. If the piece in your hand is unnaturally smooth or the shape is too consistent, you probably have a fake.
Touch the Skin
The typical skin of real garlic is thin. Therefore, it is papery and can easily be peeled. On the other hand, the artificial one usually has thick skin, which is hard to remove. In case you have peeled a clove of fake garlic, sometimes the skin is too rough, showing that the garlic may be not genuine. In general, you should be able to know whether garlic is genuine by testing the skin's thickness and ease of removal.
Float Test
A very basic water test can be done to check the genuineness of garlic. Drop a piece of the clove into a glass of water and if it sinks, the garlic is most probably real if it floats though, there is a chance that the garlic is fake. The element of realness incorporated in most actual kinds of garlic makes it sink while the fake may be made using lighter or hollower items and may actually float. This test is a quick and effective way to spot fake garlic.
Smell it
The smell test is the most straightforward of methods to check whether the garlic is real or not. There truly is no mistake about the strong, pungent smell that goes in hand with real garlic. If your garlic has no scent at all but a chemical smell, it might be fake. Much of the fake garlic does not contain the oils in their natural form—the best way is to trust your nose.
Compare the Price
Ultimately, extremely low prices signal poor quality. If a stall owner is selling garlic at a price much lower than the standard price, it may be an indication that the garlic is of very poor quality or a counterfeit product. As much as a bargain sounds good, quality and authenticity should come first.
These are just some of the indicators that the garlic is not genuine. If you're not convinced, you can go a step further and conduct a taste test. Real garlic will possess a very strong, pungent taste with a sharp bite. If you taste something other than this—some form of aftertaste, especially of a chemical or artificial nature—then it's best to avoid consuming the garlic. This kind of undesirable aftertaste is itself a product of fakeness—something not being quite right, like the garlic being artificial.
