SPICED Symposium “Spices and Herbs - A Risk Free Taste Experience?"

The international symposium will provide state-of-the-art data on food safety in the spice and herb chains.

The European Union (EU) market is one of the largest markets for spices and culinary herbs in the world. Mostly, these commodities are imported as dried raw materials from producing regions outside of the EU. Contaminations with microbiological and chemical agents can take place at numerous vulnerable points within production and supply chains and can pose a serious risk for farmers, processors, and consumers.

The identification of contaminated spices and herbs as a cause of a food-borne infection or intoxication would be difficult, because consumers and experts often focus on major food ingredients. Moreover, many detection methods are less suitable for the heterogeneous herb/spice matrices. Therefore, a special focus is set on the challenges in establishing and maintaining food safety in the spice and herb chains.


Stakeholder from industry, government, and academia are welcome to join the symposium. Talks will be given by external experts and by partners of the EU project SPICED (www.spiced.eu).

Attendees are invited to participate with poster contributions; abstract submission will close on 31 March 2016.

Students with poster contribution can apply for a Student Travel Award. You will find more information on the document linked below.

For questions, please contact spiced@bfr.bund.de.