Vark (also varak, Waraq, or warq) is a fine

filigree Filigree (also less commonly spelled ''filagree'', and formerly written ''filigrann'' or ''filigrene'') is a form of intricate metalwork used in jewellery and other small forms of metalwork. In jewellery, it is usually of gold and silver, m ...

foil Foil may refer to: Materials * Foil (metal), a quite thin sheet of metal, usually manufactured with a rolling mill machine * Metal leaf, a very thin sheet of decorative metal * Aluminium foil, a type of wrapping for food * Tin foil, metal foil ma ...

sheet of pure metal, typically

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

but sometimes

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

,Gold in Gastronomy
deLafee, Switzerland (2008) used to decorate

Indian sweets This is a list of Indian sweets and desserts, also called ''Sweets from the Indian subcontinent, mithai'', a significant element in Indian cuisine. Indians are known for their unique taste and experimental behavior when it comes to food. Many In ...

and

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient, nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus, fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein (nutrient), proteins, vitamins, ...

. The silver and gold are edible, though flavorless. Vark is made by pounding silver into sheets less than one

micrometre The micrometre (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American English), also commonly known by the non-SI term micron, is a uni ...

(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.Madhu Gadia, 2000
New Indian Home Cooking: More Than 100 Delicious Nutritional, and Easy Low-fat recipes
. 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 Indian sweets, confectionery, dry fruits and spices.DK, 2017
The Periodic Table Book: A Visual Encyclopedia of the Elements
.Vijaya Ghose, Jaya Ramanathan, and Renuka N. Khandekar, 1992
Tirtha, the Treasury of Indian Expressions
, Page 61. It is also placed onto mounds of

saffron Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of '' Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma and styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent ...

rice on platters.Maya Tiwari, 2005
Ayurveda: A Life of Balance : the Complete Guide to Ayurvedic
.1989
The Illustrated Weekly of India
, Volume 110, Issues 36-44 - Page 39. For safety and ethical reasons, the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

has issued food safety and product standards guidelines for manufacturers of silver foil.

History

Etymology

Varaka means cloth, cloak or a thing that covers something else. Vark is sometimes spelled ''Varaq'', ''varq'', ''vark'', ''varkh'', ''varakh'', ''varkha'', or ''waraq'' (, ). In

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, ''varaqa'' or ''barga'', means a sheet, leaf or foil.

Product

Silver Coated Spices By Shree Aditya Silver Leaves

Manufacturing

Vark is made by placing the pure metal dust between parchment sheets, then pounding the sheets until the metal dust molds into a

, usually less than one

(μm) thick, typically 0.2–0.8 μm. The sheets are typically packed with paper for support; this paper is peeled away before use. it generally takes 2 hours to pound the silver particles into foils.‘Chandi ka Warq’ business may become history soon
,

The Economic Times ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. Owned by The Times Group, ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961 and it is sold in all major cities in India. As of 2012, it is the world's secon ...

, 8 Jan 2018. Particles were traditionally manually pounded between the layers of ox gut or cow hide. 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. 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. Old City in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

used to be the hub of traditional manual manufacturing, where it is a dying trade. Delhi is a new hub of vark manufacturing in India.

Usage as food

The silver is edible, though flavourless. It is also commonly used in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, and

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

as coating on sweets, dry fruits, and in sugar balls, betel nuts, cardamom, and other spices. 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

Goldwasser Goldwasser or Danziger Goldwasser (lit. 'Gold water from Danzig'), , with ''Goldwasser'' as the registered tradename, is a strong (40% ABV) root and herbal liqueur which was produced from 1598 to 2009 in Gdańsk (). Production now takes place i ...

and

Goldschläger Goldschläger is a Swiss cinnamon schnapps (43.5% alcohol by volume or 87 proof; originally it was 53.5% alcohol or 107 proof), a liqueur with very thin, yet visible flakes of 24-karat gold floating in it. The actual amount of gold has been meas ...

Vegetarian ethical issues

Concerns have been raised about the ethical acceptability 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. Due to the grinding effect of the hammering, some of the animal intestine becomes part of the silver foil, which is sold in bulk.Thanwardas Lilaram Vaswani, 1992
East and West Series
, Issues 412-423, Page 10. Since

Jains Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion whose three main pillars are nonviolence (), asceticism (), and a rejection of all simplistic and one-sided views of truth and reality (). Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and ...

and a considerable percentage of

Hindus Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

are vegetarian, this led to the decline in the usage of vark in sweets or

supari The areca nut ( or ) or betel nut () is the fruit of the areca palm (''Areca catechu''). The palm is originally native to the Philippines, but was carried widely through the tropics by the Austronesian migrations and trade since at least 15 ...

Indian Airlines Indian Airlines was a state-owned airline in India that later became a division of Air India Limited before ultimately ceasing operations. It was based in Delhi and focused primarily on domestic routes, along with several international servic ...

asked its caterers to not apply vark to the food supplied to ensure no animal intestine is present. In 2016,

banned the usage of animal guts or skins in the making of vark.Govt slogs its guts out for ‘vegetarian’ chandi ka vark
, Daily Pioneer, 8 June 2016. 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 The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is a statutory body under the administration of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. It regulates the manufacture, storage, distribution, sale, and import of f ...

has issued guidelines for the silver leaf manufactures to adhere to regarding thickness, weight, purity, labeling and hygiene of the silver leaf.

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 (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, ), from the Ashke ...

. These inert precious metal foils are not considered toxic to human beings nor to broader ecosystems. Large quantities of ingested bioactive silver can cause

argyria Argyria or argyrosis is a condition caused by excessive exposure to chemical compounds of the element silver, or silver dust. The most dramatic symptom of argyria is that the skin turns blue or blue-gray, and is usually most prominent in sun-ex ...

, but the use of edible silver or gold as ''vark'' is not considered harmful to the body, since the metal is in an inert form (not ionic bioactive form), and the quantities involved in normal use are minuscule. One study has found that about 10% of 178 foils studied from the

Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...

(India) market were made of

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

. 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.Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
, See toxicity, food and exposure papers on nickel, lead, copper, chromium, cadmium and manganese. The total silver metal intake per kilogram of sweets eaten, from vark, is less than one milligram.

References

{{Garnish Indian desserts Pakistani desserts Nepalese desserts Food ingredients Gold Silver Food and drink decorations