#cakeage

First up

Check the packaging. Does it look intact? If you see any damage to the packaging do not use and get in touch with your batch number.

#cakeage

If you find any of your Boom ingredients have clumped together or gone hard it could be cakeage.

It's a bummer. We know it sometimes happens and we're sorry about it. We know it's not nice when your dry ingredients don't flow like Atacama Desert sands from pack to pan.  

Unfortunately cakeage is something we choose to deal with. We pride ourselves on delivering an all natural product. So we made the decision to...

...SAY NO TO ANTI-CAKING AGENTS 

Anti whats?

Anti-caking agents

Anti-cakes are a food additive that help stop ingredients from clumping together after being packed. They've been around for donkey's years. Over a century! In 1911 Morton Salt began adding magnesium carbonate as an absorbing agent to its table salt to ensure that it poured freely.  

Morton Salt When it rains it pours

We love the ad - but we'd rather not follow suit and add magnesium carbonate or any other E numbers to our products. We'd rather take a leaf out of Marie-Antoinette's book and let them eat cakeage! (cakeage = ingredients that have stuck together inside the packaging) 

Magnesium carbonate - E504 is one of many anti-caking agents used by the food industry. The only known side effect is that it may work as a laxative in high concentrations. Ew! That's the last thing we want playing on our mind the morning after. 

But most of all, we don't want any E numbers in our products! We were shocked to learn that you can use trace amounts of anti-caking agents and not have to list them on your ingredients! For us this is the bigger crime.

What causes product caking?

Product caking is typically the result of exposure to moisture. Most often caking is bought on by a spell of humid weather or storage in a damp environment. 

Caking doesn't mean that the ingredients are old or not fresh. It just means that at a molecular level atmospheric moisture has made your ingredients stick together. 

Usual suspects

We have a couple of natural hydroscopic* ingredients that go into our curry kits. When clogging / cakeage occurs it tends to be these hydroscopic fellas that are the culprits:

  • de-hydrated beetroot -  we use beetroot instead of an artificial food colouring in our Tikka Tarka Masala
  • de-hydrated onion and garlic found in our Boom Base

*so dry it acts like a sponge - think Gandhi's flip flop dry!

What to do if you have caking?

If you're really not happy don't sweat. It will only make your cakeage worse. Instead get in touch and we'll sort you out with a refund. Or, pop round and we'll cook it up for you. You won't be able to taste the difference! 

Here are our tips for overcoming cakeage:

Boom Spices

Our advice is to give them a bash with a blunt object. This is tidier if you do it while the ingredients are still in their sachets. If the caking is particularly bad, mix and crush with a tea spoon of vegetable oil until you have a nice paste.  

Boom Base

No drama - this bad boy is destined for a hot water bath anyway. 

Coconut

Don't worry, add per instructions and allow the heat to break it down. 

    Anti-cakes to watch out for 

    As a rule of thumb E numbers tend to be harder for human bodies to break down over time. Because they don't sit with our cooking it real mantra we've compiled a list of anti-caking agents you can look out for. The sad thing is that most companies can put trace amounts of these in their products and legally not have to tell you: