All about garlic

BEWARE of CHINESE GARLIC!
You Are Most Likely Consuming Bleached and Chemical-Loaded Garlic from China Exported Worldwide.

There are so much negative news about Chinese garlic that I have given up buying China grown garlic.

Chinese garlics are normally sold in meshed bags of $2.99 each of approximately over a dozen bulbs  as compared to USA or New Zealand grown garlic selling loose at around $26.99/kg.  A bulb of New Zealand garlic is around 40grams.

The key words for me on any food product packaging (especially garlic) is “Made in New Zealand” or “Product of New Zealand”.  “Made in New Zealand” still keeps me on high alert as this can easily mean they imported the garlic from an overseas country (China, for instance) and have simply crushed them and bottled in New Zealand. “Product of New Zealand” states it is a NZ food, grown in NZ, and this is the only label that keeps me happy.  I also happily buy USA garlic which are often a bit smaller than NZ grown garlic and selling around $24.99/kg.

Chinese garlic is very mild compared to NZ. It lacks the burn and true garlic taste. There are no roots on the Chinese garlic, they have been sliced off, whereas NZ garlic will still have roots attached. This from a garlic grower: “Chinese roots carry infected soil and quarantine regulations the world prohibit the introduction of soil organisms on produce.”

Garlic is grown globally, but China is by far the largest producer of garlic, with around 19 million tonnes (42 billion pounds) grown annually, accounting for over 79% of world output. India (5.2%) and South Korea (1.7%) follow, with Egypt (0.9%) in fourth place and the United States (where garlic is grown in every state except for Alaska) in tenth place (0.7%).  This leaves 11% of global garlic production in countries that each produce less than 2% of global output. Much of the garlic production in the United States is centered in Gilroy, California, which calls itself the “garlic capital of the world”.

In fact I have always bought Chinese garlic till the switch over this year after reading all the posts on facebook about the chemicals found in Chinese garlic that turned me off.  I use a lot of garlic in my cooking and although the cost of  USA and New Zealand grown garlic are perhaps five times more than Chinese grown garlic, it isn’t like we are cooking a whole garlic dish (if you know what I mean).  Garlic are just merely seasoning in that sense so using a dearer and more superior and healthy product does not necessarily mean you will burn a huge hole in your pocket.

For the green fingers, perhaps you may want to grown your own garlic.  I tried but failed so garlic stays in my shopping list.

Check out this link on the 13 Surprising Benefits of Garlic.

Do you buy China grown garlic?