The Secret From Ancient Times: How to Store Spices Maintaining Flavour and Freshness
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By Basil Thomas
You have landed in this blog to learn how to store spices to retain their freshness and flavor. So I wonder if you might have already purchased spices online or offline and are now looking to store them safely. Well, it is not that hard a job to store them but it is important to take all precautions to keep them safe to maintain the flavour, color, and smell. I know, your question is why do I have to store these spices securely? Yes, you have to do it to maintain the dryness of your spice, and to retain the smell, flavor, and color. I can give you an example, keeping Green Cardamom open to air reduces its color and smell. Just remember Cardamom spice is all about its green color and smell, without them, it is nothing. Similarly, we need to store chilies in airtight containers to secure them from fungus.
In this blog, let me give you a short understanding of the importance of storing spices securely, how to store spices, and why it is important with a few examples.
What influences the quality of spices when storage conditions are not optimal?
I can list some of the factors that the quality of spices when the spices are not stored properly.
- Exposure to moisture: Moisture can cause spices to clump together, promote the growth of mold and bacteria, and accelerate spoilage. So it is important to always use an airtight container to store any spices.
- Exposure to air: Oxygen can lead to oxidation, causing spices to lose flavor, aroma, and potency over time. We can take Cardamom for example, as it loses its color and smell when it is exposed to air.
- Exposure to light: Light exposure can degrade the color and flavor of spices, especially those containing natural pigments sensitive to UV radiation. Same Cardamom we can take as an example.
- Temperature fluctuations: Fluctuations in temperature can accelerate the degradation of spices, leading to loss of flavor, aroma, and potency.
- Contamination: Spices stored in unclean or contaminated environments can become tainted with foreign particles, microorganisms, or odors, affecting their quality and safety. Even small insects like cockroaches use it as a breeding ground.
- Pest infestation: Insects and pests can infiltrate improperly stored spices, causing damage and contamination.
So, yes these are the common factors that can affect the quality of your spices when not kept with proper storage.
Basil Thomas
About the Author
Basil, the visionary behind PureLeven, seamlessly fuses his hands-on farming experience from his parents' labor. Guided by nature's lessons, Basil directly sources premium products from Kerala's farms, embodying a profound commitment to ethical commerce, sustainability, and authentic quality.
Email: purelevenexim@gmail.com
Phone/WhatsApp: +91 8075519579
Best Practices for Storing Spices
Since we have already learned about why we need to store spices in optional conditions. Next, we need to understand what are the best practices of storing spices.
1. Keep spices in airtight containers:
The first and most important thing to remember is to store spices in containers that seal tightly to prevent exposure to air, which can cause oxidation and loss of flavor. Oxidation is a chemical reaction in which a substance loses electrons. It occurs when a substance reacts with oxygen or another oxidizing agent. Some of the spices easily lose their electrons when exposed to air. So it is important to keep the spices in an airtight container.
2. Store in a cool, dark place:
People often why do we have to keep spices away from heat and light. Well, both light and heat can accelerate the loss of flavor and aroma and also the color of some of the spices. A pantry or cupboard away from the stove or sunlight is ideal for storing the spices.
3. Avoid contact with moisture:
The presence of water or moisture can cause spices to clump together and promote the growth of mold and bacteria. Store spices in a dry environment to maintain their quality. Even moisture in the air might be able to damage the quality of spices.
4. Use opaque containers:
If your spice containers are transparent, consider transferring them to opaque or tinted containers to protect them from exposure to light as it might reduce the quality of spices.
5. Label containers:
Understand the lifespan of each spice and properly label spice containers with the date of purchase or expiration date to track freshness and ensure you use them within their shelf life.
Yes, now we know what are the different ways we can store spices to retain their freshness and quality.
How do you make sure the spices you buy online are properly stored?
Spices are cultivated by farmers and collected in a storage unit when they are not properly packed or stored. This has been an issue for decades and still, the shopkeepers are practicing the same. When you buy spices or buy spices online, we recommend talk to the shopkeeper or owner about from where these spices are sourced and how it is stored to preserve its freshness and quality. We always work to collect spices ethically from farmers and store them in optimal conditions to preserve the freshness of the spices. So if you are looking to purchase cardamom or black pepper online or any spices online, you can visit our shop.
As we discussed already, it is very important to store spices in optimum condition and also it is important to know where your spices are coming from and how they are stored and packed to retain its quality.