Codex spice

Spice Oleoresins are frequently used in commerce with added suitable food-grade diluents, preservatives, antioxidants, and other substances consistent with good manufacturing practices, as provided for under Added Substances (see General Provisions). When added substances are used, they must be declared on the label in accordance with current U.S. regulations or with the regulations of other countries that recognize the Food Chemicals Codex. 

Minor crops such as tropical fruits, vegetables, spices, tea, etc. are traded in substantial amounts in international trade. The total amount traded is usually small in comparison with other major crops. These may however, contribute significantly to the national coffers of small developing countries. As illustrated in Table 1, Codex MRLs for many of these commodities are not available for reference as international food standards. This may be attributed to inadequate baseline data on residue trials and the low priority accorded by Codex to the elaboration of these MRLs. 

Numerous trade disruptions have occurred over the past years as a result of the lack of national and Codex MRLs for spices. Dried chili peppers have suffered the most detentions. In India alone, from 1999 to 2001, the reported losses in revenues ranged from 4.4 to 6.1 million USD [4]. Notifications in the EU Food Alert System often show rejection of consignments of spices from Asia due to residues of pesticides. Considering the main producers are small farm holders in developing countries that rely mainly on trade in spices for subsistence, the importance of establishing residue limits for pesticides used on spices was brought to the attention of the CCPR in 2000. 

Dried chili peppers do not fall within the definition of spices. Therefore, the use of monitoring data was not applicable to dried chili peppers. Instead, Codex MRLs for dried chili peppers were set based on the existing MRLs for fresh peppers, applying an agreed default dehydration factor of 10 [7]. This dehydration factor was based on the loss of moisture after sun-drying fresh peppers. 

Chronic and short-term intake calculations showed that there were no dietary exposure concerns for any of the pesticides for which MRLs for spices and dried chili peppers were proposed by CCPR. Consequently, the Codex Alimentarius Commission adopted the MRLs for spices (Table I) and for dried chili peppers (Table II) in its sessions in 2005 [8] and 2006 [9], respectively. 

Strengthen capabilities of national institutions to enable the generation of scientific data to support the establishment of Codex M RLs. The case of spices has illustrated that alternative approaches for setting MRLs are possible. Chile has provided a model of how cost-effective plant protection strategies can be implemented to suit the diverse requirements of each of its many trading partners. 

According to the Codex Alimentarius standard 223-2001, kimchi is a product predominantly prepared from Chinese cabbage (firassica rapa pekinensis syn. Brassica pekinensis Rupr) as well as from other cleaned, sliced, salted and spiced vegetables subjected to a fermentation. 

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