Shelf life of Spices and Herbs

Dear All,

Can anybody help me for setting a shelf life study for spices and herbs? I also need basic data how it can be start?

Regards,

Bhavin

Hi Bhavin,

There is a posting on shelf life issue few weeks ago and I think the following statement by Anish works for your case here.

Generally for dry blends & food which is generally kept in the shelf or required to maintain 25deg - 4 kind of studies are generally done - 2 studies using accelerated methods (indirect method) and another 2 following direct methods.

Indirect studies are done by keeping the product at 55deg and 90% RH, another at 40deg and 55% RH

Direct studies are done by keeping the product at at 25deg, 55% RH and another at Room temperaturewithout controlling temperature & humidity.

Then a weekly interval is followed to check for Sensory, Rancidity, Peroxide Value & other important parameters which is a key property of the ingredient (vitamins, minerals ...). Individually packed samples should be used each time - I mean while keeping the sample for stability studies - enough quantity should be kept in the humidity chambers (if you mark it in advance it is good) - so that once taken for analysis should not be kept again.

Sensory and appearance are some of the more important concerns for herbs and spices. Others include microbial growth, depending on treatment and storage conditions.

You will want their flavor to be as fresh and strong and appearance to be of same intensity as control. Keep monitoring them on a weekly basis for accelerated testing and verify it by checking every one month for the Direct studies.

You can find the rest of the discussion here.

I agree, organoleptic concerns are likely to be your main worry with herbs and spices unless fresh, undried types.

Interestingly, having worked in confectionery, I know it can be very difficult to assess flavourings (not for shelf life but to get an idea of whether the predominant flavour was from natural or synthetic origin as packaging legislation demands fruit flavour is predominately natural if you have a depiction of fruit on the pack). Anyhoo, we used to use a sugar solution to carry the flavour in the percentage used in product as a trial.

I was thinking with spices you might need to do something similar to see if the flavour is diminishing. For example, chilli powder tasted as powder will taste hot but at a 1% or 0.1% solution you may be able to detect a reduction in flavour intensity which you wouldn't detect if tasted alone. I'm not sure what you'd use to test this, not sugar solutions certainly and some spices increase and some decrease in intensity when cooked. I certainly don't think it's as simple as tasting the spice raw and neat as that will not be how it's used. Perhaps you could do that and then also cook it into something bland, e.g. a white sauce or omelette at different levels throughout the life?

Dear Hongyun,

Thanks for providing information. It is very useful for me and definately i will put my thoughts in direction to initialize the study.

Regards

Bhavin

Hi Bhavin,

There is a posting on shelf life issue few weeks ago and I think the following statement by Anish works for your case here.



Sensory and appearance are some of the more important concerns for herbs and spices. Others include microbial growth, depending on treatment and storage conditions.

You will want their flavor to be as fresh and strong and appearance to be of same intensity as control. Keep monitoring them on a weekly basis for accelerated testing and verify it by checking every one month for the Direct studies.

You can find the rest of the discussion here.

@ GMO,

You guys are able to distinguish natural or synthetic flavorings by evaluation?? Shouldn't these information come from your flavor supplier instead?

I certainly don't think it's as simple as tasting the spice raw and neat as that will not be how it's used. Perhaps you could do that and then also cook it into something bland, e.g. a white sauce or omelette at different levels throughout the life?

I think dispersing 0.5 - 1% in plain water should do the trick for evaluation, if you are selling them as raw materials. Besides, cooking takes too much time and there are too many inconsistency which may affect the results like cooking time, person doing the cooking, temperature, etc...

@Bhavin,

Besides organoleptic, there are also some other parameters that may be important and affects the end product:

Curcurmin % in Turmeric powder (lost when exposed to ight over time)
Color unit in paprika (also lost when exposed to light over time)

As for chilli, GMO's right. The hotness will affect your evaluation. The main component for the hotness is capsaicin and this can be quantify by the use of ASTA method and a HPLC machine.

Anyhoo, we used to use a sugar solution to carry the flavour in the percentage used in product as a trial.

I second that: when assessing herbs and spices, the best way is to simulate the matrix of your endproduct.
I work in a meat / vegetable spreads industry, so our "tasting matrix" will be water with added salt.
If salt is present in your end product, you will have to include it in your tasting solution as salt boost the final taste

I second that: when assessing herbs and spices, the best way is to simulate the matrix of your endproduct.
I work in a meat / vegetable spreads industry, so our "tasting matrix" will be water with added salt.
If salt is present in your end product, you will have to include it in your tasting solution as salt boost the final taste

I would agree that using sugar solution for sweet flavors and salt solutions for savory flavors for evaluation. But as a supplier for herbs and spices, there is no end product. It is sold as a raw material or intermediate for customers to decide.

Anyway, it's not too much trouble to add salt/sugar in water to evaluate. You can try all three methods of evaluation (plain/sweet/salt) and find out which is the best method for your panelist to detect the difference and stick to it.

Dear All,

Can anybody help me for setting a shelf life study for spices and herbs? I also need basic data how it can be start?

Regards,

Bhavin

Hi Bhavin,
Lot of ideas you have already got in the posts. Following can be the scheme for determining the shelf life: -

1) Moisture
2) Total Plate Count
3) Total Coliforms
4) Yeast and Mould count
5) The essential volatile oils or the specific componenet of the spice e.g. Volatile oil in Clove, cinnamon; cucumin in turmeric; capsacin in chilly
6) Organoleptic testing

Use above in conjunction with Anish's post for the temp and humidity levels and packaging tets. Spice generally have a shelf life of one year if packed in a three layer pouch. Basec on this info you can devise th eplan for shelf life testing.

Thanks


Gourav