In 2015, a number of spice products were subject to a costly recall from the international market because of the suspected unlabelled presence of almond, a known allergen from the Prunus genus and an EU listed allergenic species. The Prunus genus contains other ‘stone fruits’ such as apricot, cherry and peach.

These spice samples – cumin and paprika – suspected to be adulterated with almond were referred to the UK Government Chemist in 2015 in its advisory capacity to determine the contaminant. Current techniques, such as immunoassays, typically have difficulties distinguishing between closely related Prunus species as they suffer from cross-reactivity. Using novel DNA-based techniques, scientists from the Government Chemist programme were able to conclusively identify the adulterant species in these samples.

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