Bia Analytical spices up portfolio with the addition of chilli Powder and rosemary testing

Bia Analytical is now offering rapid authenticity testing for chilli powder and rosemary to help fight food fraud.

Chilli powder, the ground form of one or more varieties of chilli pepper from the genus Capsicum, can be sold on its own or with the addition of other spices.

Chilli powder blends are composed chiefly of chilli peppers and can be blended with other spices including cumin, onion, garlic powder, and salt. Chilli powders may be adulterated with flours and starches, spent chilli and paprika powder.

Bia Analytical’s newly developed chilli powder method covers a large variety of chilli such as Cayenne, Jalapeno, Chipotle, Habanero and many more and can identify economically motivated adulteration (EMA) with flours and starches.

Rosemary, a herb native to the Mediterranean, belongs to the Lamiaceae family and is available in a variety of forms including cut, needles and ground. Rosemary must be dried immediately after harvesting to prevent the loss of volatile oils. Rosemary is at risk from bulking with cheaper dried leaves either in leaf or ground form.

Bia Analytical has now developed a rapid and robust screening technique to detect EMA of Rosemary using FT-IR coupled with chemometric modelling.

Belfast based Bia Analytical can help reduce food business’ exposure to the risk of food fraud using industry-leading, cutting-edge spectroscopy with chemometric analysis testing methods. Spectroscopy with chemometric analysis is becoming the most reliable method for adulteration detection in herbs and spices.

This technology enables Bia Analytical to provide results within a guaranteed three working day turnaround time, empowering food producers and their suppliers to make decisions and retain consumer confidence in their products.

Bia Analytical offers rapid authenticity testing for a number of herbs and spices including black pepper, turmeric, sage, paprika, oregano, garlic, cumin, ginger, white pepper, coriander, thyme, parsley, basil, fennel, cinnamon/cassia, chilli powder and rosemary – with methods for new food groups currently in development.

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