Products at high risk of food fraudHerbs and Spices

Herbs and spices are parts of plants like seeds, fruits, roots, etc. primarily used for flavoring and coloring food. Spices play an important role in enhancing the flavor and taste of a wide range of foods, including processed foods and ready-to-eat products. Due to their high economic value and increasing demand, herbs and spices are considered at high risk of food fraud and raise quality and safety issues to food industries.

Most common frauds Herbs and spices

BLENDS: ground herbs and spices can be substituted with fillers or less expensive/lower quality products to increase the weight. Sometimes old products are sold as new, which impacts the overall characteristics and aromatic profile.

DYES: color addition enhances spice appearance but is not allowed. Moreover, some dyes are suspected to be carcinogenic and can pose a serious risk to consumer health.

IRRADIATION: irradiation can be performed to break down microbiological charge and has to be declared. The fraud occurs in case of intentional mislabeling (non-declaration) and use of inadequate facilities.

REMOVAL OF ESSENTIAL OILS: some herbs and spices can be deprived of essential oils to be fraudulently resold as whole spice. The removed oleoresin by-products can be also sold separately at a higher price.

GEOGRAPHIC ORIGIN: geographic origin means higher price for some products. Geographic origin can be intentionally mislabeled for economic gain as it can be for Bourbon Vanilla, Spanish Saffron, Espelette Pepper, etc.

Food Fraud and Authenticity Service: Herbs and Spices

FOODSAFETY &QUALITY

The challenge of fraud detection Herbs and Spices

Herbs and spices are very challenging matrices to analyze in terms of composition and variety.Some frauds may require non-targeted approach and customized authenticity database to be built.Herbs and spices do not have unique and harmonized reference standards.

Our analytical serviceHerbs and Spices

Mérieux NutriSciences offers a comprehensive analytical service for fraud detection in herbs and spices such as saffron, black pepper, chili, paprika, turmeric, oregano, cinnamon, vanilla, and many more. According to the specific need, different analytical approaches are used and combined together:

Sample-based: targeted tests on single samplesProject-based: specific design of the experimental protocol according to the fraud characteristics and customers’ needs (targeted tests and non-targeted screening)

Mérieux NutriSciences E-mail: services@mxns.com

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Specific quality of the herb/spice

Identification of characterizing substances (piperine, etc.)

Replacement with other species

Replacement with bulking material

• Replacement with less valuable material

• Oleoresin removal

• Impurities, heavy metals

• Fraudulent irradiation, thermal treatment

Specific determination according to the spices

Identification of DNA species in the product

Mineral profile, ashes, crude fiber

Essential oil content and aromatic profile

• Mineral profile, ICP/MS, etc.

• Chemiluminescence

HPLC/UV, HPLC/MS, etc.

DNA Metabarcoding

Gravimetry, ICP/MS

Distillation + GC/MS

Mislabeling of geographic origin

• Authenticity verification (naturalness, purity, etc.)

• Maintenance of quality standards

Different authenticity issues

Food profiling and authenticity database (targeted/non-targeted)

Non-targeted metabolomics

Isotopic Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS)

Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIR)

Fourier-Transform

Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)

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ADDRESSED ISSUE ANALYTICAL DETERMINATION METHOD

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