Fraud detected in one-fifth of herbs and spices in EU study: Who wants shredded olive leaves on their pizza instead of oregano? Herbs and spices keep being a target for food fraud, a European Commission study that analyzed almost 1,900 samples revealed. The study showed that about 20% of herbs and spices are manipulated, with oregano leading the top of the list, followed by spices like pepper, cumin, curcuma, saffron and paprika. Europe is a leading importer of herbs and spices at 300K tons a year. The entire supply chain from country of origin, processing, packaging, importing, to distribution, is potentially vulnerable to fraud. In most cases, undeclared plant material was added, and sometimes toxic dyes were found which are detrimental to human health.

Find this and other fraud incidents in our Food Fraud Database.

Picture Credit Susanne Kuehne 

Posted on 6 December 2021