Are Organic Spices Better?

With Organic Week around the corner, it seems only appropriate to go back to basics when it comes to spices and talking about whether organic spices are better.

Better compared to Conventional?

Organic spices are grown without the use of pesticides and chemicals whereas conventional spices are usually grown using pesticides and chemicals. So, organic spices are definitely purer. Adhering to organic production also means that the spices cannot be genetically modified. They also typically do not contain MSG or any other nasty fillers either. In addition, organic spices won't have been irradiated or fumigated.

Better in Taste?

Now this is where I feel consumers are being misled. Just because spices may be organically grown, it doesn't mean they taste better. Taste always comes down to the quality of spices and as I have talked about before, there are many factors that contribute to quality. 

Think of it like the outside of a  house and 'organic' as the foundations to the building. You need the foundations to start the house but to complete it you also need walls, floors, windows and the roof. In this case, the rest of the house would be the pillars of quality being grades, volatile oils, harvesting methods and processing, harvest year and last but not least journey time. The house would not be the best it can be and there would be no point to the foundations if any of these components were not built or completed properly as we saw with a recent peppercorn recall.

Better for You?

Recently there has been research in the UK that showed eating organic produce was better for our health. The fact that spices are organic and not grown with chemicals is obviously a good thing in that we are not ingesting those toxins but as to nutrient value or other benefits, any purported benefits or therapeutic benefits from consuming more spices can only be as good as the quality. If, for example, one is taking turmeric to help with inflammation, it is the curcumin content in the turmeric that will help with this ailment. If the curcumin content is low (typically by the lighter colour of the turmeric as it is also the colouring agent in turmeric) then you are going to need more of it. Further, if that turmeric was harvested years ago, got repackaged and oxidised multiple times and has not been used regularly, its volatile oils will have depleted and what is commonly known as a healing spice is not so healing any more.

To conclude, in answer to the question whether organic spices are better - yes they are but they are not necessarily the best - that comes from the layers of quality you need to build on top.

Six Ways to Knowing How Long Your Spices Will Keep

This is the $64,000,000 question in the spice world and the THE most common one I get asked so it was time to post about this.

Most spices naturally have a long shelf life but there is no real way to audit this as a consumer.  To define spices as fresh is a little odd given the reality of the process involved from growing them to getting them to your pantry. Freshness is, therefore, better used to describe how long the spices will keep their volatile oils for and this is dependent on what happens to the spices at every stage in their journey. Think of it as a bus journey and the number of stops it has to make to get you from A to B, the journey time in between stops and how long you stop and what happens at each stop too.

The next time you go to the grocery store or are thinking of replenishing your spice cupboard, here are the 6 questions you should be asking yourself or the grocery store:

1. Does the package tell you whether the spices are irradiated and fumigated or not?

2. Are the spices certified organic?

3. Are the organic spices certified to the standard of your country?

4. Are the spices packaged in your country?

5. Does the spice company directly import the spices into your country or do they source from intermediary suppliers?

6. How many times have the spices you buy been packed and re-packed?

Why you should be asking these questions and what impact they has on the longevity of your spices is discussed in the table below. Click on the image to view in larger format.Please note this does not speak to quality of the spices as, needless to say, the better the quality, the better your spices.

That was the long answer! The short answer is, assuming the spices are non-irradiated, of high quality and delivered to you from Farm to Pantry in as short a supply chain as possible,  and, once opened, you store your spices appropriately, seeds should maintain a good level of volatile oil and aroma for between 1-2 years and the ground spices 6-8 months.