Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Spices and herbs are available in a wide array of formats. Spices can be fi nely
ground, coarsely ground as well as kibbled or even whole, whilst herbs can be fi nely
ground and in the rubbed (or leaf) format. Spices and herbs easily lend themselves
to provenance and varietal claims. Their cultivation is still essentially a local cottage
industry where specifi c sourcing and segregation can be specifi ed (Indian Mirror
2011). For example, spices can be from named geographical regions such as black
pepper from Kerala in India or Indonesia. Chilli varieties such as Chipotle, Ancho,
Habanero and Scotch Bonnet give both different fl avour and different heat levels.
Claims of provenance or variety are becoming more important as retailers look for
viable ways of applying a 'quality' or 'premium' statement to a product.
The growing infl uence of Asian cooking has led to the roasting of spices for
use in ready meals. Ready roasted spices are commercially available and their use
has increased (Tainter and Grenis 2001). Roasting of spices should not be confused
with the heat treatment of spices and herbs. Roast spices are used for their fl avour
profi le, which is distinct from their unroasted counterparts. The heat treatment of
spices is used to reduce the microbial loading of the herb or spice in a way that
minimises the effect on the fl avour profi le.
The heat treatment of herbs and spices used in food processing is now expected
in the modern food industry. They are treated for a short period with steam in order
to reduce the high microbiological loading associated with spices and herbs due to
their vegetative state and the conditions under which they are grown and harvested.
The heat treatment is carried out on both the whole spices and herbs before grinding
and also on ground spice and herbs. Advances in optimising the heat treatment in
recent years has minimised the loss of volatiles that may be expected and, apart
from some darkening of the spice and herb, the heat-treated material compares well
with the non heat-treated variety and is a much more acceptable format to the food
processor. Some herbs are not particularly suitable to heat treat, for example,
rubbed parsley which loses its attractive bright green colour and becomes browner.
Irradiation is also used for the control of microbial loadings but this method is
not currently permitted in the EU. For all spices and herbs lower microbiological
loading before any treatment is achieved by better control of growing and
processing conditions in particular control of the soil used for growing and the
conditions in which they are dried (UNIDO and FAO 2005).
13.2.7 Essential oils and oleoresins
For almost every spice and herb available to the savoury formulator there is an
equivalent essential oil and oleoresin. Essential oils are derived from the spice or
herb by distillation, which produces a generally light coloured liquid with much
higher fl avour strength than the original material. The fl avour can be described as
top note as it is the volatile portion of the spice or herb having a very strong aroma.
Oleoresins are produced from the spice or herb most commonly by solvent
extraction, although other methods are used such as cold pressing and cryogenic
supercritical carbon dioxide (CO
2
) extraction. Any solvent is removed and
essential oil is often reincorporated to restore any top notes lost in the extraction
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