Label Spotting: Parag Moong Punjabi Papad Lists Ingredients in Six Languages

Some food packets quietly list ingredients and move on with their lives.

Others arrive with the energy of a multilingual UN conference.

Enter the delightfully overqualified label on Parag Moong Punjabi Papad

At first glance, it is a standard papad packet: moong dal, black pepper, cumin, asafoetida, edible oil. Familiar territory.

Source: Open Food Facts

Then you turn the packet over.

And discover the ingredients listed in six languages!

The label marches confidently through:

• English

• Hindi

• Spanish

• French

• German

• Arabic

Somewhere between the English and German sections, you begin wondering whether the papad itself has a passport.

The ingredient list also contains one of the most unintentionally dramatic phrases ever printed on a snack packet:

Plant Based Sodium Bicarbonate (Saaji)

Not “baking soda.”

Not even “raising agent.”

No. This papad chose scientific prestige.

“Plant Based Sodium Bicarbonate” sounds like something presented at a sustainability conference by a startup founder wearing white sneakers.

And then comes the beautifully grounded Indian reality check in brackets:

“(Saaji)”

That single word instantly brings the ingredient back from biotech laboratory to grandmother’s kitchen. 

Saaji (also known as Sajji Na Phool, Saji Khar, or Papad Khar) represents one of the earliest examples of a naturally derived alkaline leavening agent. While modern baking soda is industrially produced pure sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃), traditional Saaji comes from the ash of specific salt-tolerant (halophytic) plants such as Salsola stocksii and others. The plants are burned, and the resulting ash is processed into a water-soluble alkaline salt.

In food systems, it reacts with acids (or through heat) to release carbon dioxide (CO₂), creating lift and aeration. In papad and bhujia doughs, the alkaline environment also modifies starch gelatinization, protein structure, and Maillard browning — resulting in the characteristic crisp texture, lighter color, and reduced oil absorption when used optimally.

If you don't bother reading the label, the papad inside remains exactly what it has always been: something you roast directly on flame while pretending you will eat “just one.”