Report: Salmonella strain detected in spice shipments

Some problems are bigger than any one company or producer, but that doesn’t remove the need for food labels that outline all ingredients and warn customers of possible safety flaws. A government study that recently appeared in the journal Food Microbiology identified more than 8 percent of a sample of thousands to have been contaminated “with antimicrobial-resistant salmonella strains” as it says.

Over the course of three years, the study looked at a variety of spices and additives derived from nearly 80 countries and drew from information gathered through other agencies as well, with salmonella prevalence more notable in pepper-based products than others. This includes black pepper, red pepper and paprika, all of which which were shown to have been contaminated in multiple countries, including Ireland, Australia and Japan.

The study also asserted that the amount of salmonella present in spice shipments is double that of other types of monitored foodstuffs, with Mexico being one of the primary sources allowing for this to spread in the United States. The New York Times quoted a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) deputy commissioner named Michael Taylor on the importance of policing this area.

“We have decided that spices are one of the significant issues we need to be addressing right now,” he said.

It may be unclear to a company how to make a label that accounts for factors that may occur long before the finished product reaches its ultimate destination. Whether the answer turns out to be more country of origin labels or some other measure, using custom labeling solutions can allow a company to approach the problem on its own terms and perhaps solve it in a way that keeps the matter within its hands.