I bought ginger at the grocery store last week and kept it unpeeled in the refrigerator. Today I cut it open and instead of the yellow one I was expecting there is a blue colored ring. The ginger still smells like what I expected (I haven't tried tasting it).
Will this be safe to use (I was planning on putting some in salad dressing) or should I toss it?
Answers
Having just returned from Hawaii, I have a possible answer for you. There is a type of ginger you can get (although it's not that common as far as I can tell) called blue ginger. It's just like regular ginger, but it has a blue layer inside it, just like you describe. One guy was selling it at a roadside fruit stand when we were there.
It should be completely safe to use.
edit: I found a link to someone talking about this. Hawaiian blue ginger
Some varieties of ginger contain compounds called anthocyanins, which can turn blue when exposed to acids (these are the same compounds that sometimes turn garlic blue). Varieties of ginger originating from Japan contain these compounds, but varieties originating from China do not, which explains why this only occurs in some ginger. The pH of ginger is slightly acidic, so a reaction is likely to occur.
. so yes, it is a safe natural compound in ginger. It is an antioxidant, so there is some evidence that it may be beneficial for your health.
The same thing happened to me. I returned from the store with fresh ginger, only to find that when I cut it, it was more blue than yellow. I checked and found this link: https://homecooking.about.com/od/foodstorage/a/gingerstorage.htm Read far enough and it says it's another type of ginger. I hope this helps.
This blue ginger seems to be completely safe because I ate a lot and was fine. I eat ginger almost every day. This is a wonderful panacea; I mainly use it to improve digestion and relieve indigestion from overeating and hard-to-digest foods like beef and saturated fats.
It's definitely not chlorophyll because ginger meat comes from the rhizome of a plant that grows well underground; too deep for light to penetrate. Additionally, the leaves are where most of the chlorophyll production occurs, even the lower stems are almost pure white. Although most ginger plants have a layer of beautiful purple coloration just above the soil line, blue ginger certainly looks like a different type of ginger; possibly subsp.
Read also: Origami paper lily diagram
As a ginger connoisseur, I find this a wonderful dish, but I definitely prefer the taste of yellow ginger, and especially white ginger (which is juicy, soft and delicious), better than blue. Hope this adds useful information to this thread.
I've never heard of this being a problem. I don't know about the reason though. Is it more blue or more green? If the root had been exposed to light at any point, I believe it may have received some chlorophyll development.
Blue ginger or Hawaiian blue ginger is not a true ginger plant, but the flower on it is the most beautiful deep blue. I have this all over my yard, I use it in everything and love it. It is milder than regular ginger and makes an excellent tea.
I buy ginger a lot and every now and then I get one that has a greenish ring inside. I drank it and nothing happened to me
