cen:proj:76877

Food authenticity — Non targeted screening of spices and herbs by ¹H-NMR cen:proj:76877

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, …).