ASTA

The American Spice Trade Association (ASTA) (4) accepts spice as any dried plant product used primarily for seasoning purposes. This broad definition was designed so that items labeled only as spice could give adequate protection to proprietary formulas for spice mixtures. However, ASTA recommends that the dehydrated vegetables and the color spices be listed separately by name on all labels. ASTA also has recommended that the capsicums, no matter the species, be delisted as spices and labeled separately. 

The American Spice Trade Association (ASTA), estabUshed by the industry, works with U.S. government organizations to set up specifications (9) for spice products that conform specificaHy to the laws, however generalized they are. 

Initially, there was some ovedap on proposed analytical methods to accomplish a particular analysis. The Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) methods and Bacteriological Analytical Manual (BAM) methods in some cases dupHcated ASTA methods, but the procedures differed. Most spice companies, particulady those who are members of ASTA, use ASTA recommended methods. In an attempt to ensure that equivalent specifications are reported, the Technical Group of ASTA develops specifications and in some cases recommends that a BAM or AO AC method be used. 

ASTA has also made available a manual of microbiological methods (10) which contains 22 different procedures for the detection and enumeration of microorganisms occurring in spices. A handbook on clean spices for ASTA members (11) is available. 

The Nutritional Composition of Spices, Research Committee, ASTA, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Eeb. 1977. 

Association of the Chemical hidustry of Austria (FCIO), 256 Association of the Dutch Chemical hidustry (VNCI), 262 ASTA Medica AG, 160 Astaris LLC, 218... 

T12629 N. Vivona, S. Buseemi, S. Asta, and T. Carolina, Tetrahedron 53,12629... 

Arnold, H., Brock, N. and Kuhas, E. U.S. Patent 2,7B5,202 March 12,1957 assigned to Asta-Werke A.G. Chemische Fabrik, Germany... 

Anufrieva EV, Gotlib YuYa (1981) in Cantow HJ, Dali Asta G, Dusek K (eds) Investigation of Polymers in Solution by Polarized Luminescence, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York (Adv Polym Sci, 40)... 

Dall Asta and Motroni (44, 57) provided direct experimental evidence for the transalkylidenation mechanism in the case of cycloalkenes. With a catalyst system consisting of WOCI4, C2H6A1C12, and benzoyl peroxide they prepared a random copolymer of cyclooctene and cyclopentene, the cyclo-pentene double bond being labeled with 14C. The distribution of the radioactivity in the copolymer formed will depend on the site of ring opening. 

Steric factors may also be important in situations where alternative modes of reaction are available. Dall Asta (44) examined the ring-opening polymerization of 3-methyl-m-cyclooctene. By infrared analysis of the product formed, he obtained quantitative information about the occurrence of head-to-head and head-to-tail successions. More than 90% of the links in the polymethyloctenamer were of the head-to-tail type, but the sterically more hindered and, therefore, unfavored head-to-head links were also observed (about 5%). Ofstead (39) investigated the ring-opening polymerization of some 1,5-cyclooctadienes substituted at one of the two... 

Prof. Hans-Joachim Cantow, Institut fur Makromolekulare Chemie der Universitat, Stefan-Meier-Str. 31, 7800 Freiburg i. Br., FRG Prof. Gino Dall Asta, Via Pusiano 30, 20137 Milano, Italy Prof. Karel DuSek, Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, 16206 Prague 616, CSSR Prof. John D. Ferry, Department of Chemistry, The University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, U.S.A. 

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