How to Distinguish Real and Fake Saffron

We all have heard about the great benefits of saffron; however, distinguishing between real and fake saffron has always been a big challenge for all of us. It’s important to know what exactly are you paying for and whether you’re getting the real red gold.

The quality and strength of saffron depend on how it is harvested and sorted and the amount of time that has passed since harvest. Each part of the saffron thread is known for a specific property. The red stigma of the plant determines the color and flavor and the style, the yellow-while portion that is sometimes included can also contribute to the weight and value of the saffron for sale.

Many people have heard about the great benefits of saffron. However, it can be hard to identify pure and organic saffron threads from fake saffron and the difference between cuts of saffron. With such a high price by weight, it’s essential to know what you’re paying for and make sure you receive a high-quality product with the best smell, taste, and color.

There are different types of Saffron like like Sargol saffron, White saffron, Super Negin saffron and this article from Persatrading will show you how to identify real and fake saffron to help you make the best choice.

What Determines the Quality of Saffron?

Smell: Original saffron has a strong aroma between the scent of honey and alfalfa. Use the combination of honey and alfalfa as a code to distinguish the scent of the real saffron from the fake one.

Taste: Although saffron has the sweet smell of honey, the taste is quite bitter; some even describe it as the taste of eating cow’s leather.

Coloring strength when soaking in water: Real saffron slowly turns the water yellow; the color change may take more than an hour. Saffron threads should still retain their red color even after being soaked in water for a whole day, of course, it will not be as dark red as it was before being soaked but it should still have a strong red color; on the other hand, the fake saffron immediately changes color after being soaked in water.

Price: Saffron is the most expensive spice in the whole world; no matter where and which shop you go to, you will always see high prices for a small quantity, but you might also see low prices for a beautiful red-looking saffron – wow!

That’s too good to be true- is the first thing that comes to your mind, in fact, it is… each saffron flower gives only three saffron threads, and during the time of harvest and watering the farmers are careful not to let the water touch the saffron threads so that it wouldn’t lose color, so imagine this much of hard work and at the end how would the price be so cheap?!

High-quality saffron (Packaged Saffron or bulk) will be expensive due to the production process. Cheaper saffron brands will be mixed with other ingredients or contain added chemicals.

Although some of our customers are first-time users and knowing the natural taste and aroma of saffron is quite challenging for them, that’s why we provide them the test results of our saffron which we have tested in our laboratory, Our test results show that our saffron qualities are higher than Iran standard of saffron quality. All products are controlled and have 259-1 and 259-2 Standard certificates, which is acceptable in other countries with ISO 3632 or FDA.

Here at Persa Trading, we try to provide the customer with the best quality and service to have a long-term friendship.