Let's check the naturalness of sour cream using iodine and boiling water!
Our readers are often interested in whether it is possible to check sour cream for naturalness. We answer: it is difficult to do this at home. Using improvised methods, it is easy to identify non-dairy fats and starch in the composition of this product, while the remaining “false ingredients” will remain in question.
Methods for falsifying sour cream
Sour cream is a popular and beloved product in Russia, so counterfeiting it is not just profitable, but very profitable. Counterfeiters are coming up with more and more new ways to reduce the cost of production.
- Adding starch
The thickness of sour cream largely depends on its fat content, and the fat content affects the price. Therefore, both the “most honest in the world” grandmothers from the market and industrial manufacturers often use a thickener (for example, starch). What is obtained in the end, by law, should be called a sour cream product, but is sold under the guise of natural sour cream.
- Vegetable and animal fats
Another common method of adulteration is the addition of vegetable fats, usually palm or coconut oil. However, such a fake is easy to detect, so large manufacturers prefer to increase the amount, weight and fat content of sour cream with cheap beef fat. Since it, like milk, is of animal origin, it can be difficult to detect its presence in the product.
- "Remake" from other products
Natural sour cream is prepared from only two components - milk cream and bacterial starter culture.But there are craftsmen who use whatever they can get their hands on. For example, from low-fat cottage cheese, kefir and flavorings they produce a product that is almost completely identical in taste and appearance to sour cream.
- Powdered milk and dry cream
In the Russian Federation it is not prohibited to use powdered cow's milk and powdered cream from cow's milk for the production of fermented milk products. However, counterfeiters replace them with dry soy cream in combination with starch (for thickness), as well as palm or beef fat and flavoring additives.
How to check the quality of sour cream?
- At home, only the most clumsy fakes can be identified. Counterfeits made by competent technologists are not always detected even in laboratories.
Iodine test
This product for treating scratches and cuts is found in every home. And when it comes to dairy products, it also becomes a reagent:
- Scoop some sour cream into a spoon.
- Apply iodine to it.
- Wait a few seconds.
If the sour cream turns yellow-brown, it means there is definitely no starch in it. But a blue or purple tint should alert you - this is a sure sign that a thickener was used in production.
Please note: gelatin, carrageenan and guar gum can also be used as thickeners. You won’t be able to detect them in sour cream at home!
Hot water test
You can also check whether sour cream contains non-dairy fats. To do this you need:
- Pour in about half a glass of hot water.
- Add one or two teaspoons of sour cream to the water.
- Stir well and wait two to three minutes.
If after stirring an emulsion is formed - the sour cream seems to have dissolved in water, and fat drops float on the surface, then it is a natural product. If flakes or crumbs have formed in the glass and settled to the bottom, the manufacturer is clearly dishonest.
Important: on the Internet it is often advised to carry out this experiment by dissolving sour cream in boiling water. You can't do that. The correct water temperature is no higher than 37–40 °C, since higher temperatures will melt vegetable oils and beef fat. For the experimental result to be reliable, these components must remain solid and settle to the bottom.
Despite the fact that most people trust grandmothers from the market, when buying factory products, the risk of stumbling upon a fake is much lower. Choose sour cream from large manufacturers: they usually value their reputation. And don’t forget that a natural product cannot be cheap - to make 1 liter of 20% sour cream, you will need 5 liters of whole milk.
Simple ways to check the quality of sour cream. Every time I buy a new company or somewhere else on the market, I check the sour cream.