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A new report has been published by the UK Food Standards Agency on a review of methods for the analysis of culinary herbs and spices for authenticity.

Herbs and spices are a commodity group that consistently appear in the top ten commodities most reported as being adulterated. Due to the large variety of products that fall within the category of herbs and spices, complex global supply chains and commercial production processes, methods for verifying their authenticity / detecting fraud are not straight forward.

The main aim of this project was to identify methods for the analysis of culinary herbs and spices, in their dehydrated or dried form, for authenticity with a focus on detecting deliberate adulteration.

Authenticity testing of herbs and spices is a complex matter, and the analytical approaches used for the authenticity testing of herbs and spices are very much dependent on stakeholder needs and the purpose of testing. All methods and technologies used for the authenticity testing of herbs and spices suffer from the same issues of the lack of reliable reference samples, and difficulty of accessing proprietary validated datasets, on which to validate the methods to demonstrate their fitness for purpose. 

Read the full report and recommendations here. The report has also been added to the Research Reports section of this website.

In this study, the Thermo Scientific™ NGS Food Authenticity Workflow was used to analyse spices and herbs.  

Reference samples were analysed to verify the specificity, and spikings down to 1% (w/w) allowed verification of its sensitivity including in complex mixtures of five different spices and/or herbs. 

272 commercial samples were collected in Asian and European markets.  78% of the commercial samples were compliant with the declared content, whereas the rest were shown to contain undeclared species that were in a few cases allergenic or potentially toxic. 

The researchers conclude that the overall workflow is user-friendly and straightforward, which makes it simple to use and facilitates data interpretation.

Access abstract.

 Photo by Ratul Ghosh on Unsplash

Photo by Alice Pasqual on Unsplash

An article published in the I online newspaper reports on the ongoing risk of herbs and spices adulteration.  

Investigators and analysts have told i that the $20bn (£17bn) global herbs and spices industry is being increasingly targeted by organised crime gangs and fraudsters determined to use disruptions to global supply chains, caused by factors from Brexit to Covid-19 to the war in Ukraine, to cash in with fake, adulterated or contaminated products.

This article reviews recent surveillance findings, common adulterants, detection methods and includes comments from the National Food Crime Unit and the Scottish Food Crime and Incidents Unit.

Read full article

Photo by Andrea Leon on Unsplash

The European Commission published today the results of the first coordinated control plan on the authenticity of herbs and spices launched by the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety.

It has been carried out by 21 EU Member States, Switzerland and Norway, with the technical support of the Joint Research Centre, which performed nearly 10,000 analyses. The plan is the largest investigation so far into the authenticity of culinary herbs and spices in terms of participating countries and samples analysed (1885).

The main conclusions were as follows: 

• The overall rate of suspicious samples was 17% (323 of a total of 1885 analysed samples), which is less than what was previously reported in the scientific literature or by national food control institutions.
• The oregano supply chain was most vulnerable as 48% of samples were suspicious of being adulterated, in most cases with olive leaves.
• The percentage of samples which were suspicious of adulteration were 17% for pepper, 14% for cumin, 11% for curcuma, and 11% for saffron.
• The lowest suspicion rate (6%) was found for paprika/chilli.
• The majority of suspicious samples contained non-declared plant material; in 2% of the analysed spice samples non-authorised dyes were detected. One sample contained a high level of lead chromate.
• In two cumin, 45 oregano, and four pepper samples copper compounds above the relevant maximum residue limit set by Regulation (EC) No 396/2005 were found.
• No specific trend regarding the rate of potential fraudulent manipulations along the supply chain (countries of origin/importers/wholesalers/processors/packagers) could be observed. However, for certain stages (domestic production, local markets, border control, and internet) the number of samples tested was too low to enable statistically meaningful comparisons.

Read full report.

Whilst deliberate adulteration of herbs and spices is understood to be a common phenomenon, this study highlights a potential food safety issue:

Between 2008 and 2017, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene tested more than 3000 samples of consumer products during lead poisoning case investigations and surveys of local stores, and of these, spices were the most frequently tested (almost 40% of the samples).

A total of 1496 samples of more than 50 spices from 41 countries were collected during investigations of lead poisoning cases among New York City children and adults and local store surveys.

More than 50% of the spice samples had detectable lead, and more than 30% had lead concentrations greater than 2 parts per million (ppm). Average lead content in the spices was significantly higher for spices purchased abroad than in the United States. The highest concentrations of lead were found in spices purchased in the countries Georgia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, and Morocco.

Read paper.

An industry best practice guide on assessing and protecting the authenticity of herbs and spices was launched by FDF in June 2016. The guide was developed by the FDF, BRC and Seasoning and Spice Association(SSA) in liaison with the FSA and Food Standards Scotland (FSS).

The FDF Press Release can be read at:   http://www.fdf.org.uk/news.aspx?article=7539

and the Guide can be found at:   http://www.fdf.org.uk/herbs-spices-guidance.aspx

A recent survey undertaken by professor Chris Elliott on behalf of Which? magazine has found that a quarter of 78 samples labelled as oregano contained other ingredients, in some cases forming up to 70% of the product.

Read more at Which? >>

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