Pick up any masala packet at the supermarket. Flip it over. Read the back.
You'll see "all-natural" on the front. You'll see "no artificial colour" on the side. You might see "100% pure" stamped near the brand mark. Then you'll get to the ingredient panel — and there's a good chance it says something like "spices, condiments, salt, and permitted food additives."
That's the problem. The front of the bag is a marketing line. The back of the bag is the actual product. And in the spice category, the gap between them is wider than in almost any other shelf at the store.
This piece is about how to read a spice label the way a careful cook should: which phrases tell you something, which phrases tell you nothing, and how to spot the gaps where adulteration usually hides.
"All-natural" is not a regulated term
The first thing to know about the phrase "all-natural" on a spice packet is that it doesn't have a legal definition under Indian food law. FSSAI — the food safety authority — regulates specific claims like "organic", "no preservatives", and "sugar-free" with documentation requirements. "All-natural" sits outside that system. A brand can put it on a packet of pure turmeric or on a packet of turmeric mixed with rice husk and yellow dye. The phrase carries no obligation.
So when you see "all-natural" on the front of a packet, treat it as marketing, not as information. The phrase doesn't mean the spice hasn't been adulterated, doesn't mean there are no fillers, and doesn't mean the panel is honest. It just means the brand decided to put those two words on the bag.
The phrases that actually carry weight are the specific ones, because they're the ones FSSAI will hold a brand to:
- "No artificial colour" — testable. A lab can detect added colour in turmeric, chilli, or any blend.
- "No preservatives" — testable. Sodium benzoate, sulphur dioxide, and similar agents show up on a chromatograph.
- "No fillers" — not a regulated term, but combined with a specific, fully named ingredient panel, it becomes verifiable. If the panel names every ingredient and there's no rice husk, starch, or anti-caking agent listed, the claim is doing real work.
Specificity is the test. "All-natural" is vague. "No artificial colour, no preservatives, no fillers — and here is the full ingredient list" is specific. The specific claim is the one you can hold the maker to.
The three places adulteration hides
Once you stop trusting the front of the bag, you can read the back the way it should be read. There are three patterns to look for.
1. The phrase "permitted food additives" or "permitted condiments."
This phrase is legal under FSSAI labelling rules, but it tells you almost nothing about what's actually in the bag. Permitted additives can include anti-caking agents (silicon dioxide, magnesium carbonate), bulking agents (rice husk powder, sawdust), and colour stabilisers. None of them are illegal. Most of them are also not what you thought you were buying.
A genuinely clean blend names every ingredient. If the panel hides behind "and other permitted ingredients," the maker has chosen not to tell you what's in there.
2. The order of ingredients.
FSSAI requires ingredient panels to list components in descending order by weight. For a masala that's supposed to be ingredient-led, the spices should be at the top of the list and fillers, if any, at the bottom.
Look at a chilli powder packet. If the first ingredient is "red chilli" and the second is "common salt," you're holding a chilli-salt blend. That might be what you want. But if the third or fourth ingredient is "edible vegetable oil" or "rice flour," you're paying chilli prices for filler weight.
Same trick on garam masala blends: the heaviest ingredient by weight should be one of the headline spices. If it's salt — or worse, "spice extract" — the blend has been bulked up.
3. The gap between the dish name and the panel.
The simplest test is whether the ingredient panel actually matches what the dish needs.
A real Chettinad masala contains kalpasi (stone flower) and kapok buds. If the panel doesn't list those, it's a chilli-coriander blend with a regional name printed on the front.
A real goda masala contains dagad phool and naagkeshar. If the panel doesn't name them, the blend isn't goda — it's a warm-spice mix.
A real biryani masala with Awadhi character includes mace, green cardamom, and rose petals at meaningful ratios. If the panel reads like a generic garam masala, the regional claim on the front of the bag is doing more work than the spice inside.
The dish name on the front sets an expectation. The panel on the back has to match it. When they don't, you're paying for the label.
Three quick tests you can run at home
You don't need a lab to spot the most common adulteration. Three things, ten minutes total:
Test 1 — Water test for chilli powder. Drop half a teaspoon of red chilli powder into a glass of water. Real chilli powder will float at the top for a few seconds, then settle gently. Added brick powder or sand will sink fast and leave a coloured grit on the bottom. Added water-soluble dye will leach colour into the water within seconds — a real chilli barely tints water unless you stir hard.
Test 2 — Turmeric water test. Drop half a teaspoon of haldi into warm water and stir. Real turmeric will turn the water a soft yellow. If it turns dark yellow or orange almost instantly, there's added colour — usually metanil yellow, which is industrial dye that's not legal for food use in India and is one of the most commonly seized adulterants in turmeric.
Test 3 — The hand-rub test for blended masala. Take a pinch of any masala blend between your fingers. Rub it. Smell. A real blend should release more than one aroma — you should be able to pick out at least two or three distinct spices in the first few seconds. A heavily adulterated blend smells flat or one-note, because the actual aromatic spices have been diluted with starch or salt.
These three tests catch most of the common shortcuts. They don't replace a lab, but they tell you when something is wrong.
We've got a full breakdown of the turmeric test coming on the blog with video, side by side — link at the bottom of this post when it goes live.
What a clean panel actually looks like
A spice panel that's doing its job has three properties.
Every ingredient is named. No "spices and condiments." No "permitted food additives." Every component that goes into the bag appears on the label, in descending order by weight.
No filler ingredients appear. Rice husk, starch, sawdust, magnesium carbonate, silicon dioxide, anti-caking agents — none of these belong in a premium spice blend. If they're on the panel, the blend isn't ingredient-led; it's volume-led.
The headline ingredient is at the top. A chilli powder should start with red chilli. A turmeric powder should start with turmeric, with nothing after it. A regional blend should start with the spices that define the region.
That's it. Three things. No certifications required, no marketing language, no claims that aren't testable.
When the panel passes these three tests, the phrase on the front of the bag matters less, because the back of the bag has already told you what the product is.
How we read our own labels
Every blend on spicedright.co lists every ingredient on the back of the pack. There's no "and other spices." There's no "permitted condiments." If it's in the bag, it's on the panel — and if it's on the panel, it's on the website, the marketplace listing, and the back-of-pack pouch verbatim.
We make in small batches: 100 packets of 100g per blend, per batch. At that scale, every ingredient is weighed for that specific batch. There's no need for anti-caking agents to make a tonne of blend flow through a packing line. There's no need to bulk up volume with starch. The blend doesn't go through filler logic because the production run doesn't require it.
That's not a marketing claim. It's a description of how the kitchen works. The clean panel comes out of how the product is made, not out of how it's labelled.
What to do next time you shop
Three habits that will change what you take home:
- Read the panel before you read the front. Spend the same amount of time on the back of the bag that you spend on the front.
- Look for vague phrases. "Spices and condiments", "permitted ingredients", "natural flavour" — these are the phrases doing the hiding.
- Match the panel to the dish name. If the bag says Chettinad and the panel doesn't name the spices that make Chettinad cooking what it is, the regional name is doing more work than the product.
Most of the trust problem in the masala category isn't about whether brands are lying outright. It's about how much they're allowed to leave unsaid. Once you know what the panel can hide, the front of the bag stops mattering.
Browse our full panel-honest range → spicedright.co/collections/all
Every blend, every ingredient named on the pack. No fillers, no preservatives, no shortcuts. First-order welcome offer WELCOME2SR — free shipping on orders ≥ ₹500.
Related reading: - Goda and Kolhapuri: The Two Opposite Masalas of Maharashtra — what regional specificity looks like on a panel - What Makes Chettinad Masala Different — the kalpasi test for Chettinad blends - Coming soon: How to spot adulterated turmeric at home (3 kitchen tests)