I wish I had learned about this sooner. I recently came across this information, so it's not something I ever paid much attention to until now.
When buying fresh garlic, make sure it has roots!
When garlic is imported from China, it gets bleached and the roots are removed.
Imported garlic is often grown using human sewage as an inexpensive fertilizer, and often not treated properly at that. It is then sprayed with chemicals to prevent sprouting, bleached with chlorine to make it look white, and then fumigated with methyl bromide which can cause respiratory and CNS damage.
To spot imported garlic, a tag that says "product of China" is obvious. But also, look for the roots and the bleached white look. Domestic garlic will still have roots and will have some color, as it hasn't been bleached.
I've loved garlic my entire life, and I've undoubtedly eaten some Chinese garlic simply because I had no idea that was something I needed to pay attention to. Boy, have my eyes been opened looking into some of this!
I figured I'd pass this info along to help raise awareness. Eat local and stay healthy out there. 🫡
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4295866/
https://www.marysheirloomseeds.com/blogs/news/are-you-eating-toxic-garlic



