Assessment of Contamination and Compliance in Imported Spices, Herbs, Seasonings, Coffee, and Tea in the UAE

The physicochemical quality and safety profile of spices, herbs, seasoning, tea, and coffee imported into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) between 2017 and 2021 were evaluated in this study. A total of 6736 samples were analyzed for 55 routine tests of which 409 (6%) were found to be noncompliant for one or more criteria indicating potential adulteration or contamination of studied samples. Herbs had the highest percentage of noncompliance at 20/187 or 11% regardless of sample size compared to tea and spices, where the second and third highest percentage of noncompliance were found at 9% (87/965) and 7% (208/2953), respectively. Among the different regulatory criteria, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) were the most frequent cause of noncompliance in spices, followed by moisture content and water extract in tea samples (83 noncompliant results). Regarding the origin of the imported samples, those from India were most often rejected (155/2860) but there was a low noncompliance rate of 5.4%. In contrast, samples imported from Taiwan had the greatest non-compliance rate at 60% or 6/10 samples. This study revealed that seasonings, spices, herbs, coffee, and tea are at risk of contamination and fraud. These everyday products can pose significant danger that is often overlooked. Despite the overall low percentage of noncompliance, there is an urgent need for better quality control to protect consumers and ensure these items are safe for use.