How to distinguish quality spices from fakes: cinnamon

ATTENTION! CHEAPLY INADGED RAW MATERIALS IN SEASONS - THIS IS DANGER FOR LIFE​

Cinnamon ground (Latin Cinnamomum Burmannii) is an evergreen tree of the genus Korichnik. Cinnamon bark gets spice - cinnamon, which is widely used in cooking and is appreciated for its sweet taste with light bitter taste and spicy flavor.

Regions of growth: Indonesia, Vietnam, China.

Cultivated also in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Indochina, Laos, Sumatra, Burma.

Harvest: March-June

Cinnamon tree (Cassia Vera)

Cinnamon. Cooking application

Cinnamon has a pleasant, sweet, with a small bitterness, a steady taste. The scope of its application in cooking is quite extensive. Cinnamon is used to make the first, second, sweet dishes, both hot and cold. Especially often it is added to various confectionery products.

• This spice is used mainly in confectionery production and for baking bakery products. It also fits well with sweet, including spicy, dishes. It is added to puddings, mousses, jellies, curd pastes, sweet pilaf.
• Cinnamon is admirably combined in sweet dishes with fruits and vegetables, rice and corn. In modern Western European cuisine, it is often added to various types of fruit salads, soups.
• Cinnamon is a part of the famous spicy mixtures of "curry" and "garam masala" (Indian mixture of spices).
• In liquid dishes cinnamon is added more often in the form of pieces of bark (cinnamon pods), and in the second dishes and dough - in the hammer.
• Spice is used for canning fruits, mushrooms and meat.
• Thanks to its preservative and bactericidal properties, it is added to perishable products.
• Spice gives amazing taste and aroma to jam, jam, creams, ice cream, mousse, jelly, milk porridge, yogurt, kefir, products made from cottage cheese.

WHAT DOES KORITSA CONCENTURE?

It perfectly combines cinnamon with cherries, cherries, apples, quinces, pears, oranges, tangerines, lemons, grapefruits, bergamots, pumpkin, dried apricots, as well as other spices: cloves, ginger, lavender, coriander, cardamom, patchouli, vanilla, nutmeg , thyme, rosemary.

Cinnamon. Beneficial features

Vitamins, which are contained in cinnamon: C, PP, B1, B12, B6, A, E. Macro and microelements: calcium, potassium, magnesium, zinc, phosphorus.

Cinnamon has many useful properties:

• increases immunity;
• restores metabolism;
• reduces cholesterol;
• stimulates blood circulation;
• increases the tone of the body;
• eliminates bleeding gums;
• relieves toothache;
• relieves of dizziness;
• normalizes the menstrual cycle;
• stimulates labor during childbirth;
• reduces intoxication;
• improves attention and memory;
• improves working capacity;
• he treats neuroses;
• relieves depression;
• saves from seasickness.

Spice takes a leading position in the content of antioxidants. It removes toxins and toxins from the body.

Especially recommended the use of cinnamon (but not in the buns and other sweets) wishing to get rid of excess weight. Spice promotes the conversion of glucose into energy, due to which it enters into many diets.

It will be useful to diabetics, as it lowers the concentration of sugar in the blood, and people suffering from cardiovascular, gastrointestinal diseases and joint diseases.

Cinnamon will relieve inflammation and relieve pain in the joints, destroy the pathogenic microflora in the intestines, improve digestion, relieve of nausea, vomiting and dysentery.

Cinnamon helps with cold and flu. She knocks down the temperature and coughs.

Cinnamon in medicine

In medicine, cinnamon is used as an antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant agent. Alcohol extract of cinnamon bark is effective against various gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, has a detrimental effect on viruses and tubercle bacilli.

Cinnamon improves the digestive system and is able to improve metabolism, increase appetite, activate the work of the liver, kidneys, gall bladder, vascular system, reduce the amount of cholesterol in the blood. It is also recommended for "sugar" disease - diabetes.

Cinnamon in cosmetology

The demand for cinnamon in cosmetology is caused by its curative effect on the skin of the face and body: it has an anti-inflammatory effect, speeds up metabolic processes in the skin cells. All this is possible due to the presence in the spice of a multitude of antioxidants and tannins. Under the influence of cinnamon facial masks, the skin acquires smoothness and elasticity, inflammation disappears, fine wrinkles are smoothed.

Hair masks, which include cinnamon, help to neutralize the consequences of improper care, nutrition, which make the curls brittle, dull and lifeless. In addition, cinnamon promotes the acceleration of hair growth, apply it and as a natural brightening agent.

Cinnamon in pharmacology

As part of the essential oil of cinnamon tree found cinnamic acid aldehyde - it is this substance that determines the pharmacological action of cinnamon on the body, as well as the specific flavor of the product.

Cinnamon oil is disastrous for more than 15 varieties of viruses, microbes and pathogenic fungi, in particular for the genus Candida - the most aggressive (causes candidiasis). It is obvious that during the epidemic of acute respiratory diseases, the use of tea with the addition of cinnamon is more than desirable. It should also be noted that cinnamon has antipyretic, diaphoretic and expectorant properties.

Cinnamon. Quality indicators

In Cinnamon, the most valuable is the amount of essential oil.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW!

Essential oils - are responsible for the characteristic sweetish-tart taste and flavor of cinnamon. Essential oils are contained in the bark of cinnamon tree. The amount of essential oils depends on the age of the Cinnamon - the older the tree, the more essential oils in the bark.

In addition to the proportion of essential oils, an important indicator of quality is the degree of purification of cinnamon bark. There are two types of cleaning the bark:

A - it is uncleaned from the upper layer of the bark and an unwashed stick. It contains no more than 2% of essential oils and can be infected with mold or other microorganisms.

AA is well purified from the upper layer of the bark and a washed cinnamon stick. Such cinnamon contains up to 4% essential oil.

Uncleaned bark wand - A                     Cleared bark stick - AA

An important factor affecting the quality of cinnamon is the collection of bark:

• The bark of the trunk of cinnamon tree is the most valuable and richest in essential oils (the content of essential oils is from 2%);
• The bark of thick branches of a tree is less valuable and contains less essential oils (the content of essential oils is about 1.5%);
• The bark of thin branches is not appreciated, since it is impossible to separate the bark from the small branches and to twig wholly with the wood (the content of essential oils is below 1%);
• Unpeeled bark from small twigs of cinnamon tree - less than 1.5% of essential oils
• Purified bark from the trunk of cinnamon tree - up to 3.5% of essential oils

Unclean bark of small branches            Purified bark from the trunk

Thus, a quality cinnamon stick will be well cleaned from the top layer of the bark. The bark should be collected from a trunk of cinnamon tree in the age of 7-8 years: the older the tree - the more essential oils contain its bark.

THE QUALITY OF THE DAIRY CORN DEPENDS ON THE QUALITY OF THE PECK OF THE KORITS FROM WHICH IT IS MANUFACTURED!

TM "Pripravka" buys whole sticks and grinds them at home

When buying ground cinnamon, you can not be completely sure of its quality, therefore TM "Pripravka" decided to purchase whole cinnamon sticks, and their grinding in their production. So you can be sure that the cinnamon is made of quality raw materials, not diluted with cinnamon with low content of essential oil, bark of other trees, etc.

TM "Pripravka" carefully controls the quality of the product that it produces.

Ground cinnamon TM "Pripravka" contains at least 2.5% essential oil, which complies with EU standards.

ATTENTION! FALSIFICATION OF QUALITY!

An unscrupulous manufacturer uses a number of ways to counterfeit / falsify quality in order to reduce the cost of spicery.

The smaller the fraction of spice, the easier it is to falsify. Fine grind conceals the true composition of the spice, so it is almost impossible to determine the quality of raw materials.

The main ways to falsify cinnamon and reduce the cost of raw materials MANUFACTURED MANUFACTURERS:

• Use of untreated small twigs of cinnamon that do not have essential oils
• Use of twigs and bark of other trees
• The use of raw material varieties of ground spices of poor quality, mixing of varieties,
• Adding flour, starch (potato, rice and corn).
• The use of waste after cleaning and grinding cinnamon (dust, shavings, sand, etc.)
• Simulation of quality raw materials through the addition of artificial colors

Uncleaned cinnamon sticks                    Dust after cleaning and grinding cinnamon

Quality ground cinnamon

Cinnamon. Quality tests (not laboratory tests)

Quality ground cinnamon has a warm brown color, without extraneous dark inclusions and shades, a characteristic sweetish-tart aroma. If you pour the ground cinnamon, the raw material will precipitate, and after it is infused, it will acquire a jelly-like structure.

1. EVALUATION OF DRY DRINK OF HAMMER CRANE

It is necessary to pour a thin layer of ground cinnamon on a sheet, press down on top with a white sheet and evaluate:

• The presence of dark inclusions, which indicate the content of impurities of mineral and vegetable origin and / or insufficient degree of polishing (cleaning) of cinnamon sticks.
• Color and color saturation. Quality ground cinnamon has a uniformly colored, characteristic warm-brown shades, homogeneous grinding and friability.

 

Sample number 1. Low quality

It has a brightly-expressed smell of flour, a color with a greenish tinge. A large proportion of dark inclusions.

 

 

Sample №2 TM Pripravka. High quality

The sample of TM "Pripravka" has a characteristic heat-cinnamon color, expressed sweetish-tart aroma.

 

2 . EVALUATION OF THE WATER SOLUTION OF THE HAMMER CRANE

It is necessary to prepare an aqueous solution of ground cinnamon: 1 tbsp. A spoonful of ground cinnamon is poured into 100 ml of boiling water and evaluated:

• Color - for quality raw materials it should be pale brown, there should not be unnatural black or greenish shades, the color should be uniform.
• Aroma - evaluate the presence of a characteristic and foreign flavor.
• Taste - assess the presence of foreign impurities.

Quality cinnamon, after pour it with hot water, will evenly settle on the bottom of the glass. After the raw material completely settles, after a couple of hours the water must be drained and the uniformity of the sediment should be observed. The precipitate of quality cinnamon will be jelly-like.

 

Sample number 1. Low quality

The solution of sample No. 1 precipitates, and a large number of dark inclusions remains on the surface. The solution smells like flour. The sample, after the water was drained, did not become gelatinous, which indicates a low quality of raw materials.

 

 

Sample №2 TM Pripravka. High quality

The sample solution №2 TM "Pripravka" evenly precipitates into the sediment, has a characteristic cinnamon flavor. After the water was drained, the cinnamon became jelly, which indicates a high quality of raw materials.

 

AND FOR WHAT ARE YOU PAYING MONEY?

Cinnamon ground TM "Pripravka" passes 7 degrees of purification of raw materials:

• Culling out lots of raw materials that do not meet food safety standards
• Magnet - cleaning from magnetized metal impurities
• Vibration cleaner - cleaning of plastic, glass, garbage
• Destoner - cleaning of stones, earth
• Aspiration - cleaning from dust, insects
• Separation - removal of rotten, mold-damaged raw materials
• Metal Detector - cleaning from non-magnetized metal impurities

TM " PRIPRAVKA". FOOD SAFETY IS GUARANTEED!

9 June 2017