Fraud is spicing up black pepper and cumin powder

The high value of spices makes them one of the most popular targets for intentional adulteration, according to a blog in Food Safety Tech.

Researchers in Brazil developed an efficient method for fraud detection: Near-infrared spectrometer (NIR) associated with chemometrics. This method is able to detect adulterants like corn flour and cassava in spice samples, revealing a high rate of adulteration, between 62% for commercial black pepper and 79% for cumin samples.

Source: Amanda Beatriz Sales de Lima et al. (January 2020). “Fast quantitative detection of black pepper and cumin adulterations by near-infrared spectroscopy and multivariate modeling”. Food Control. Vol. 107.

Further reading

• UK supermarkets threaten Brazil boycott

• Fraud: nearly 40% of seafood in study mislabelled

• New Yorker article: The great organic-food fraud

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