ETO sterilization of spices

Hi!
I wanna know about the ETO sterilization process...how its carried out for spices and spice powders..??
Is there any regulation in India(PFA or FSSAI) regarding the quantity of Ethylene Oxide gas used for this process?
and permitted quantity of its residue level in the treated spices and spice powders?
kindly someone help me

Dinu

You may also want to check this previous discussion

Naamfon,
Thank you for the information on ETO sterilization, I've been curious to learn more about the process.

My company uses quite a few spices and had formerly used ETO sterilization. However our products ship internationally and we had issues with the Australia, EU, and other international regulations so we worked with our supplier to switch to PPO sterilization (Propylene Oxide). I'm relatively new to the food industry and honestly don't know much about the PPO residue regulations, but supposedly there are less strict on PPO.

Dinu, if you have problems with ETO residue maybe consider PPO? (sorry on I'm not much help on more information regarding PPO)

Naamfon ,
Simon,

Thanks for links....I went through those and found it useful


Lane,

Thanks for the information about the PPO treatment..

Mostly, 3 common methods are used in India for sterilization of Spice and spice powders
1. ETO 2.Steam 3. Irradiation.

Steam sterilization will cause changes in the colour and flavour of the spices. Its costly too.
For irradiation, there are standards as per PFA(Prevention of Food Adulteration)...Its costly..
The economical method among these 3 is ETO...and there is no proper information about the level of residues allowed..as per PFA..

Dinu