Steam-Treated or EtO? What to Ask About Indian Spices

You won't find out from the pack. Whether a spice lot was sterilised with steam or with ethylene oxide (EtO) is a processing choice made at the packer's site, and the only reliable answer is a written statement of the method for your lot plus a residue test on the finished goods. US buyers have to ask harder than European ones, because US rules allow EtO on dried spices and EU rules effectively don't.

A German trader who buys about 75 tonnes of Indian pepper a year put the split in one line to an American on a spice forum in 2022. "We don't do much Business with america, due to different food standard laws, but probably you would ask if the pepper was treated with ethylonoxide" (r/spices, April 2022 (opens in a new tab)). His lots for Europe were steam-treated as standard. A US buyer of the same pepper gets whatever the processor does for US lots, unless the contract says otherwise. Our spice industry page and the black pepper contract page set out the full specification, so this page answers one question, how you find out, and ends with the pepper grade that confuses so many buyers.

1. Why Would a Spice Be Sterilised at All?

Because spices are farm products dried in the open, and they arrive at the processor carrying microbes. Exporters reduce them before packing. A US food-industry voice summed up the options in 2021: "A lot of facilities use steam treatment or ETO/PPO" (r/foodscience, October 2021 (opens in a new tab)). Steam heats the spice and kills microbes. EtO is a gas that does the same job at low temperature, and PPO is a related fumigant.

That matters for where the residue comes from. When EtO turns up in a spice, it's usually not something the farmer did. People in the trade say part of it comes from the packer's own sterilisation and weak degassing afterwards, the vacuum step that is meant to pull the gas back out (r/IndianFood, May 2024 (opens in a new tab), quoted in full on the spice industry page). So the question goes to whoever sterilised and packed your lot, which isn't always the exporter on the invoice.

2. Is EtO Legal, and Where?

It depends on the border, and the gap is wide. The US Environmental Protection Agency sets a tolerance of 7 parts per million for ethylene oxide on dried herbs and spices, and 940 ppm for 2-chloroethanol, the compound EtO forms in food (40 CFR 180.151 (opens in a new tab)). In the EU, the limit authorities applied to Indian spices in our count of RASFF records was mostly 0.1 mg/kg, the same unit as ppm. That's a ratio of about 70 to 1, and the EU figure is stricter than it looks, because the EU residue definition counts ethylene oxide and 2-chloroethanol together, expressed as ethylene oxide (Regulation (EU) 2015/868 (opens in a new tab), read 18 October 2026), while the US sets the two separately.

So a lot fumigated within US law can be far over the EU limit and still be perfectly legal to sell in the US. Here's why that matters to a US buyer -

• Your retailer or brand may have its own "no ethylene oxide" policy, especially since Hong Kong's 2024 action against Indian spice mixes that tested positive for it (covered on food import testing).
• If any of the lot goes on to Europe or the UK, it has to meet their limit, not the US one.
• Your customers may simply ask, and "we don't know" is a poor answer.

UK and other limits change, so confirm the current number for your product with your lab or customs broker before you ship.

3. How Do You Find Out What Your Lot Got?

Ask for it in writing, then test. These are the questions that settle it, in the order I'd ask them.

1. Which method was used on this lot? Steam, EtO, PPO, another method or none. The answer goes on the proforma or a signed declaration, lot number included.
2. Where was it done? In the exporter's own plant, or at a contract sterilisation unit? If it's a contract unit, ask for its name and the treatment record for your lot.
3. When was it done, relative to grinding and blending? A blend is only as clean as each part, so for a masala ask the method for every component.
4. What was the moisture after treatment? Steam that isn't done well leaves water behind. A US spice-company food safety manager in our logs warned that poor steaming "can cause spoilage sooner", so a moisture result belongs with any steam claim.
5. Will you accept a residue test on the finished lot? Ethylene oxide and 2-chloroethanol, reported together, on a sample drawn after the last treatment step by someone who doesn't work for the packer.

The fifth one is the real answer. A declaration tells you what someone says happened, and the test tells you what's in the bag. If the supplier hesitates over any of the five, that's information too.

4. Is Steam Always the Better Choice?

For the residue question, yes, because steam leaves no EtO behind. But it isn't free. Besides the moisture risk, the same US food safety manager noted that steam-treated organic lots lose some of their oils, which can show up as flavour and aroma. So if you specify steam, specify the result you expect afterwards too - moisture, and for spices where it matters, volatile oil. The black pepper contract page shows how to write treatment as a destination clause.

5. Has the EtO Problem Gone Away?

Largely, at the EU border. Ethylene oxide was in 30 of 69 Indian spice notifications in the EU in 2021 and 5 of 82 in 2025, while farm pesticides took over (our RASFF count, told in full on same spice, three borders). Indian exporters fixed a lot of it. But two things keep the question alive. US lots were never under EU rules in the first place, and the cases that remain still run well over the limit. Keep EtO in the test panel for ground spices, blends and anything going to Europe, and put pesticides ahead of it for EU lots.

6. What Does "Tellicherry" Mean on Pepper?

It's a size grade, not a separate pepper and not a sterilisation standard. Tellicherry grades are the bolder berries sorted out of the same Malabar crop, bought by jar packers for how they look (traders on a spice forum, 2022 and 2025). So the word tells you how big the berries are, and nothing about treatment, residues or even origin, and the treatment line in your contract has to stand on its own. Write the grade, the minimum density, the origin and the treatment as four separate lines. The grade definitions and the density clause are on the black pepper contract page, and the district and US import alert detail, including the origin-mixing claim, on black pepper from India.

If you want someone at the processor to confirm the method, draw the sample after treatment and send it to your lab, SourcingSync (opens in a new tab) does that for buyers in India.

Questions Buyers Ask