Vark or Waraq
Indian barfi sweets garnished with vark
Alternative namesVarq, Varaq, vark, varak, varakh, varakha, etc.
TypeGarnish
Place of originIndian Subcontinent
Region or stateSouth Asia
Main ingredientsSilver, Gold

Vark (also varak Waraq or warq) is a fine filigree foil sheet of pure metal, typically silver but sometimes gold,[1] used to decorate South Asian sweets and food. The silver and gold are edible, though flavorless. Vark is made by pounding silver into sheets less than one micrometre (μm) thick, typically 0.2–0.8 μm. The silver sheets are typically packed between layers of paper for support; this paper is peeled away before use.[2] It is fragile and breaks into smaller pieces if handled with direct skin contact. Leaf that is 0.2 μm thick tends to stick to skin if handled directly.

Vark sheets are laid or rolled over some South Asian sweets, confectionery, dry fruits and spices.[3][4] It is also placed onto mounds of saffron rice on platters.[4][5][6]

For safety and ethical reasons, the government of India has issued food safety and product standards guidelines for manufacturers of silver foil.[7]

History

Etymology

A tray of South Asian sweets, with some pieces covered with shiny vark

Varaka means cloth, cloak or a thing that covers something else. Vark is sometimes spelled Varaq, varq, vark, varkh, varakh, varkha, or waraq (Hindi: वरक़, Urdu: ورق Hindi pronunciation: [ʋəɾəq]). In Persian, varaqa (borrowed from Arabic waraq), means a sheet, leaf or foil.

Product

Silver-coated spices

Manufacturing

Vark is made by placing the pure metal dust between parchment sheets, then pounding the sheets until the metal dust molds into a foil,[5] usually less than one micrometre (μm) thick, typically 0.2–0.8 μm. The sheets are typically packed with paper for support; this paper is peeled away before use.[1] it generally takes 2 hours to pound the silver particles into foils.[8]

Particles were traditionally manually pounded between the layers of ox gut or cow hide.[8] It is easier to separate the silver leaf from the animal tissue than to separate it from the paper. Due to the concerns of the vegetarian population of India, manufacturers have switched to the modern technologies that have evolved for the production of silver leaves in India, Germany, Russia and China.[1] Modern technologies include beating over sheets of black special treated paper or polyester sheets coated with food grade calcium powder (nicknamed "German plastic") are used instead of ox-guts or cow hide.[8] Old City in Hyderabad used to be the hub of traditional manual manufacturing, where it is a dying trade.[8]

Usage as food

The silver is edible, though flavourless. It is also commonly used in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh as coating on sweets, dry fruits, and in sugar balls, betel nuts, cardamom, and other spices.[4] Estimated consumption of vark is 275 tons annually.

Using edible silver and gold foils on sweets, confectionery and desserts is not unique to the Indian subcontinent; other regions such as Japan and Europe have also been using precious metal foils as food cover and decoration, including specialty drinks such as Danziger Goldwasser.

Vegetarian ethical issues

Concerns have been raised about the ethical acceptability[8] and food safety of vark, as not all of it is pure silver, nor hygienically prepared, and the foil was until fairly recently beaten between layers of ox-gut because it is easier to separate the silver leaf from animal tissue than to separate it from paper.[7] Due to the grinding effect of the hammering, some of the animal intestine becomes part of the silver foil, which is sold in bulk.[9] Since Jains and a considerable percentage of Hindus are vegetarian,[10] this led to the decline in the usage of vark in sweets or suparis.[9] Indian Airlines asked its caterers to not apply vark to the food supplied to ensure no animal intestine is present.[9] In 2016, Government of India banned the usage of animal guts or skins in the making of vark.[7] Consequently, the Indian market for vark has mostly converted to using the machine-based vegetarian process in the making of the silver foils. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has issued guidelines for the silver leaf manufactures to adhere to regarding thickness, weight, purity, labeling and hygiene of the silver leaf.[7]

Safety

Gold and silver are approved food foils in the European Union, as E175 and E174 additives respectively. The independent European food-safety certification agency, TÜV Rheinland, has deemed gold leaf safe for consumption. Gold and silver leaf are also certified as kosher. These inert precious metal foils are not considered toxic to human beings nor to broader ecosystems.[11][12] Large quantities of ingested bioactive silver can cause argyria, but the use of edible silver or gold as vark is not considered harmful to the body, since the metal is in inert form (not ionic bioactive form), and the quantities involved in normal use are minuscule.[13]

One study has found that about 10% of 178 foils studied from the Lucknow (India) market were made of aluminium. Of the tested foils, 46% of the samples were found to have the desired purity requirement of 99.9% silver, whereas the rest had less than 99.9% silver. All the tested Indian foils contained on average trace levels of nickel (487 ppm), lead (301 ppm), copper (324 ppm), chromium (83 ppm), cadmium (97 ppm) and manganese (43 ppm). All of these are lower than natural anthropogenic exposures of these metals; the authors suggest there is a need to address a lack of purity standards in European Union and Indian food additive grade silver.[14][15] The total silver metal intake per kilogram of sweets eaten, from vark, is less than one milligram.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Gold in Gastronomy Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine deLafee, Switzerland (2008)
  2. ^ Madhu Gadia, 2000, New Indian Home Cooking: More Than 100 Delicious Nutritional, and Easy Low-fat recipes Archived 2023-10-25 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ^ DK, 2017, The Periodic Table Book: A Visual Encyclopedia of the Elements Archived 2023-10-25 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ^ a b c Vijaya Ghose, Jaya Ramanathan, and Renuka N. Khandekar, 1992, Tirtha, the Treasury of Indian Expressions Archived 2023-10-25 at the Wayback Machine, Page 61.
  5. ^ a b Maya Tiwari, 2005, Ayurveda: A Life of Balance : the Complete Guide to Ayurvedic Archived 2023-10-25 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ^ 1989, The Illustrated Weekly of India Archived 2023-10-25 at the Wayback Machine, Volume 110, Issues 36-44 - Page 39.
  7. ^ a b c d e Govt slogs its guts out for ‘vegetarian’ chandi ka vark Archived 2018-01-08 at the Wayback Machine, Daily Pioneer, 8 June 2016.
  8. ^ a b c d e ‘Chandi ka Warq’ business may become history soon Archived 2018-02-14 at the Wayback Machine, The Economic Times, 8 Jan 2018.
  9. ^ a b c Thanwardas Lilaram Vaswani, 1992, East and West Series Archived 2020-02-16 at the Wayback Machine, Issues 412-423, Page 10.
  10. ^ "Eight-in-ten Indians limit meat in their diets, and four-in-ten consider themselves vegetarian". Archived from the original on 2021-08-11. Retrieved 2021-08-11.
  11. ^ Conspicuous Consumption Archived 2018-12-22 at the Wayback Machine L.V. Anderson, Slate (July 16, 2012)
  12. ^ Public Health Statement for Silver Archived 2013-11-15 at archive.today ATSDR-CDC, US Government (December 1990)
  13. ^ Sarvate, Sarita (4 April 2005). "Silver Coating". India Currents. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 2009-07-05.
  14. ^ Das, Mukul; Dixit, S.; Khanna, S. K. (2005). "Justifying the need to prescribe limits for toxic metal contaminants in food-grade silver foils". Food Additives & Contaminants. 22 (12): 1219–1223. doi:10.1080/02652030500215235. PMID 16356885. S2CID 23931597.
  15. ^ Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Archived 2016-02-09 at the Wayback Machine, See toxicity, food and exposure papers on nickel, lead, copper, chromium, cadmium and manganese.
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