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IS THE GARLIC PASTE YOU PURCHASED A BLUE-TO-GREEN COLOR?

published on 05/04/2023 Does the garlic paste you bought have a bluish color tending towards green?
Don't worry, it's not a mold contamination and it hasn't deteriorated either.
Instead, it is a natural phenomenon that can also occur at home when we cook or treat garlic in particular conditions, such as with the addition of vinegar or lemon or oil.
This coloring phenomenon can also be caused by hand, as the Chinese do when they prepare "LABA" garlic. It is a traditional process that involves adding sugar dissolved in hot vinegar directly into the jar full of garlic cloves. After a couple of weeks the garlic acquires a distinctly greenish-blue color, in a completely natural way. It was a Chinese researcher, Wai-Yin Lau, from the Department of Chemistry of the University of Hong Kong, who in 2014 published the its scientific results revealing the reason why garlic, under certain pH conditions or during a certain stage of maturation, can change color from creamy white to blue to green.
When we cut or grind garlic, enzymatic reactions take place by an enzyme resident in the bulb called alliinase. During the biochemical reaction, thanks to the oxygen contained in the air, alliin is formed, which in turn is transformed into allicin and other sulfur compounds which are responsible for the pungent smell of garlic. Allicin therefore appears to be the pigment responsible for what is also called the "greening" of both the garlic cloves and the resulting paste.
Peperita works the garlic throughout the year starting from the whole bulb which, depending on the moment of seasoning, can give more or less intense coloring phenomena with tones ranging from light blue to pea green, probably because in the manufacturing process the bulbs are rinsed in water acidulated with apple cider vinegar before grinding.
It is therefore foreseeable, but not controllable, that the final paste can take on colors other than the creamy white one we usually expect.