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Draft Decision C36/2022 - Adoption of a PWI Food authenticity — Non targeted screening of spices and herbs by 1H-NMR

Source:
CEN
Committee:
AW/34/46 - Food Authenticity
Categories:
Information management | Standardization. General rules | Agriculture and Food | Food technology | Spices and condiments. Food additives | Spices and condiments

Scope

This document specifies a method for the global control of the authenticity of spices and herbs to fight against Economically Motivated Adulteration.

After liquid extraction with methanol, the sample is measured by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry (1H-NMR) 400 MHz. The whole recorded spectrum gathers information from all organic metabolites from the sample. It can be used to detect any abnormalities by comparison with a database of reference samples. This method is useful to detect adulteration of spices by artificial dyes, synthetic products, organic filler (maltodextrin…) and also all kind of natural products used to replace spices and herbs by plants at lower cost. The method is similar for all spices and herbs (e.g. saffron, black pepper, paprika, coriander, oregano, …).

Purpose

This document was developed in response to demand for an efficient and reliable test method allowing the confirmation of spices and herbs authenticity. Spices and herbs (among them saffron and oregano) are among the most expensive food products and are exposed to food fraud and any fraudulent practices. The risk of economically motivated adulteration is very high for these products, and is very widespread.