Recognise your saffron quality Saffron is mainly the harvested stigma of the autuma crocus flower, producing only three stigmas at a time. This means it fakes almost 50 to 70,000 flowers to produce just 1 pound of saffron making it expensive and rare. Let's see some ways in which you can know whether your saffron is genuine and not fake

Dip the saffron in hot water Take a few saffron threads and soak them in hot water. The fake saffron will quickly bleed out the artificial red dye, whereas the real saffron will remain intact even in warm water

Take a sip You can also test the differences in the taste profile as fake saffron would lack flavour and have a bitter metallic taste, whereas real saffron has a strong floral scent with an earthy taste

The cold water test Put the saffron threads in a bowl of cold water and wait for the colour change process. The genuine saffron will gradually turn golden, whereas the fake one will leave a red shade behind

Take a look at the overall appearance Genuine saffron threads are fine and long and can be easily separated from each other with a bulge towards the end making them look like a trumpet, but the fake ones would look like delicate simple threads

The colour The colour of your saffron matters a lot. Genuine saffron will have a vivid bright red colour, but the fake one would come with a fake maroon touch

Smell test Saffron always has a floral smell with a honey and hay mixture, but fake saffron would always have a pungent smell because of the usage of chemicals such as pico crocin and safranal

The baking soda challenge Take a cup of water and add two tablespoons of baking soda Blend until the mixture looks uniform and then add a few saffron threads. If the water turns yellow then you have a pure quality, but if it turns red or maroon, you have fallen prey to cheaters

Rub them off Rub the saffron threads with your fingers and check if they leave a yellow or orange tint. If they do then you have a fake saffron in your hand, if not then you have got yourself a genuine thread