Cumin Powder or Other Spices – How Long do the Spices Remain Fresh?

The beginning of the year is a good time to go through and clean your spice cabinets regularly. If you are buy dill, cumin powder and other such spices for your cooking requirements, then you should consider few essential steps to ensure that you replace spices after they start to lose their fragrance, color & flavor.

Herbs and spices are naturally aromatic products. Herbs are generally leaves usually grown in climatic conditions similar to that of Mediterranean regions. After the harvesting process of herbs, they lose their strength. While spices are dried buds, roots of plant, dried seeds, flower or fruit parts, usually grown in tropical region.

Following are some essential steps, which you need to consider for deciding when to replace old spices and how to keep them fresh:

Appearance – There are three ways to determine about the freshness of spices – smell, appearance & taste. Faded color of the spices is the first way to determine about freshness. Aroma of the spices is the second.

Fresh herbs and spices have intense aroma. Rub the spices in your hand, if their aroma is weak, taste it. If at all the flavor of the spice is not apparent, then it is time to replace old spices with new ones.

Don’t freeze spices – Freezing spices will not maintain their freshness. In fact, it will cause condensation in the spices jars or containers, which in turn will accelerate the aroma and loss of flavor in spices.

Don’t expose to air/moisture – It is advisable not to sprinkle any of spices directly into a steaming pan or pot. The reason behind this is that stream introduced into this bottle will hasten the loss of aroma & flavor and will simply result in caking.

If you want to use spices like turmeric, black pepper, ajwain, cumin powder, etc. for food preparations then use a dry measuring spoon, as spoon even with some moisture content may cause caking or loss of flavor. Then measure spices in a small bowl, then add the required ones to pan or pot. It is advisable to replace bottle lids tightly immediately after use.

Refrigerate Certain Types of Spices – Spices like paprika or chilli powder should be refrigerated. This will help to retain their color and guard them against infestation. It should be followed especially during summer months in hot climate.

The above mentioned steps will ensure the correct time to replace different spices like cumin powder, black pepper, turmeric, etc. and how to keep them fresh for long period of time. Thus, if you want to buy dill or any other spice, then contact trusted spices suppliers.

Pankhil Patel