Some events stay with you always, however old you get. Both my grandmother and mother used haldi ‘fingers’ when preparing their masalas. I still recall bashing up the small, dull-looking, haldi sticks on a stone first as we prepared to grind the recipe of the day. The crushed haldi gave off a distinct aroma.

Everyone in India who cooks readily understands the colour and the fragrance of turmeric (haldi). But while most households are aware that vegetables and fruits available from markets contain deadly pesticides and poisons, too few of them consider today’s haldi as a health hazard even though they handle and use it every day.

Haldi is manufactured from the root (or rhizome) of the turmeric plant. Before chemicals and the use of toxic pesticide sprays arrived in Indian fields, farmers grew turmeric with liberal quantities of farmyard manure composted from straw and the dung of cows. That haldi was largely pure and good for use even in liberal quantities. Besides food, it was also used as a medicine, in rituals as well as for cosmetics.

Today’s turmeric – from seed to spice – is a wholly different ball-game. Farmers use a battery of dangerous chemicals to grow it. In addition, it is adulterated as well.

The seed material (rhizomes) is first treated by farmers with fungicides and systemic pesticides (copper oxychloride; dithane M-45; Bavistin: all implicated in sperm damage). Some farmers actually soak the root pieces in these chemicals which will eventually become part of the mother plant. Nutrients used include diammonium phosphate, a chemical fertiliser. During their life of nine months, the turmeric plants are regularly sprayed with these same pesticides and fungicides to protect them from damage by sucking insects and fungus. Strong chemical weedicides are used as well.

After the turmeric is ready and removed, it is cleaned, boiled, dried and polished and sold to traders in the form of either ‘fingers’ or bulbs. But none of these simple operations will succeed in removing the toxic chemicals implanted in the product.

Further, people today no longer use haldi fingers. They want their turmeric in powdered form as it is more convenient to use. However, while haldi fingers and bulbs can be painted bright yellow with lead chromate, powders are far easier to adulterate. Traders too prefer to sell powdered haldi because by infusing it with artificial adulterants, they can increase its weight and the quantities available for sale. Haldi sold in stores is commonly mixed with starch powder or saw dust dyed yellow with coal tar dyes (including metanil yellow) or with extremely toxic substances like lead chromate which is cheaply available.

The lead can cause or aggravate anaemia, abdominal pain, neurological problems, kidney damage, hypertension and foetal distress – all symptoms of lead poisoning. You wouldn’t even associate such symptoms with the haldi you use.

So how does one source healthy haldi?

a) Buy only organically grown haldi. What is organic haldi? From seed to turmeric powder, no chemicals including pesticides or fungicides are used. Buy it from certified organic growers and processors or recognised organic food outlets. Organic haldi is not more expensive than conventional haldi. I pay Rs.15 for a 100 gm packet.

b) If you cannot get organic haldi, use only haldi in the form of fingers or bulbs and grind it yourself in your mixie. That will at least ensure you are not using adulterated haldi.

c) If you cannot get even this, then check out on prices of powdered turmeric from different sources in your area. The lower the price, the higher the likelihood the haldi is adulterated.

d) There is a standard inexpensive method using hydrochloric acid for identifying lead chromate in haldi: ask the consumer group from your area to test a sample with a lab.

Claude Alvares is associated with the organic farming and safe food movement in India for the past two decades. He is editor of the Organic Farming Source Book and is Director of the central secretariat of the Organic Farming Association of India.