Rude Food by Vir Sanghvi: Relax, your paneer is safe

He concluded, on the basis of a pseudo-scientific test, that every restaurant served the real thing except for one associated with Gauri Khan. Naturally, that became his headline and it was picked up by other media.

The restaurant responded that this claim was false. It served real paneer and the so-called scientific test that had been applied did not actually test for paneer but for starch.

That should have been that, except that Vikas Khanna waded into the fray. Vikas is normally a mild-mannered guy but this time, he was angry. “I have never seen such terrible misinformation like a YouTuber who claims to be a food scientist,” he raged. “It’s scary that such unqualified people are taken seriously.”

Of course, Vikas was right. The test that was apparently performed on the paneer was an iodine test. If iodine comes into contact with starch, it changes colour. The test has nothing to do with the authenticity of paneer. But it is true that some fake paneer may contain starches and can cause iodine to change colour.

Unfortunately, because this is essentially a starch test, it shows a positive when any starch or other ingredients (including soya) are part of a dish even when it is made with the best quality paneer. Cooked food often contains starches that were not present in the raw paneer, but were added as part of the recipe. That, said the restaurant, was exactly what had happened in this case.

Vikas went on to say the same thing, explaining how starch reacts to iodine. Apparently the video of the so-called purity test has now been taken down after the flaws in the testing methodology were exposed.

I don’t want to say too much about the ethics of going to restaurants, using bogus, unscientific tests and then bad-mouthing the restaurants and their chefs. All I will say is that this kind of thing is part of a larger battle between the restaurant industry and content creators.

Restaurants feel that they are at the mercy of ignorant but popular social-media figures, whose confidence is only rivalled by their irresponsibility. (It takes a lot to anger Vikas Khanna and his rage is mild compared to the things other restaurateurs and chefs are saying about this incident and others like it.) The content creators feel that restaurants don’t like the fact that they are independent commentators.

But here’s what has intrigued many people: What exactly is fake paneer?

Well , the short answer is that there are two kinds of fake paneer, one of which is on the level and the other is very dodgy.

The legitimate fake paneer falls into the same category as mass-produced industrial ice cream (which manufacturers are now obliged to call Frozen Dessert because it isn’t ice cream at all ) and fast-food cheese (which was the subject of its own controversy some months ago).

All of these products have one thing in common: They should be made from milk. And milk is expensive. So, a new category of non-dairy ‘milk ‘ products has been created. They use little or no milk (or use milk powder) and instead of dairy fat, rely on vegetable oil. That is why most multinationals who sell ice cream on a stick have been prohibited from using the term ‘cream’; they use congealed vegetable fat. Something similar has happened with fast-food cheese. Because it does not fit the accepted definition of cheese, the industry uses terms like ‘analogue’ to obscure its vegetable-fat origins.

All of these non-dairy ‘milk’ products are not only much cheaper than the real thing but, thanks to wonders of food technology, they mimic the taste of dairy so effectively that some consumers cannot tell the difference when they order them.

The exception is analogue paneer. Though it is legal to sell it as long as you don’t claim it’s a dairy product, it does not have the same characteristics as the real thing. It can be rubbery, will not crumble easily when it is cooked and (I am told) lacks the dairy flavour of real paneer. (I loathe all forms of paneer, so I will not volunteer an opinion on the taste.)

There are other differences. So-called ice cream and fast-food cheese have been developed over decades by the world’s top food scientists. On the other hand, we are the only country that eats so much paneer, so our analogue technology has been developed domestically, usually by small manufacturers.

That is why the fake (Okay, analogue) stuff is so bad. But because it is so much cheaper, it finds favour with street vendors, caterers and some unscrupulous restaurateurs. No serious chef would dream of using it.

But there is also another kind of fake paneer. This is an adulterated substance made by mixing maida, palm or some other cheap oil, baking powder, detergent, discarded skimmed milk, soda bicarbonate and industrial sulphuric acid. It is made in small workshops, solidified and sold in large bricks. It may look and feel vaguely like real paneer at first glance, but anyone who cooks with it will know at once that it is bogus. But it gets bought anyway by vendors and caterers all over north India (Meerut is a centre for the production of bogus paneer.) This kind of product is dangerous and illegal and anyone caught making it can be sent to jail.

You can see now why restaurants and chefs get so livid when they are accused of using fake paneer. The suggestion is that they are not only knowingly fooling their customers, they may also be poisoning them.

In this case, I doubt if the content-creator in question knew enough about the background and about how dangerous fake paneer can be, to mean any real harm. For him, it was just a fun thing, like telling the difference between ghee or vanaspati. (If he did actually understand the subject, then he would not have relied on an iodine test.)

But here’s my question: If the restaurant had not been owned by someone as influential as Gauri Khan and if Vikas Khanna had not got involved, would most people have accepted the content creator’s word and condemned the restaurant?

I have a terrible feeling that they would have. And that, of course, is the bigger problem.

From HT Brunch, April 26, 2025

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