Food watchdog Foodwatch found banned pesticides in all tested paprika powder, chili, and cumin. This is our reaction to that.

In May 2026, food watchdog Foodwatch had 64 everyday products examined in a laboratory — rice, tea, paprika powder, cumin, and curry powder from the Netherlands, France, Austria, and Germany. The results leave little room for doubt.

All tested samples of paprika powder, chili, and cumin contained residues of pesticides that are not permitted in the European Union. A single jar of paprika powder contained 18 different pesticides, six of which are banned in the EU.

Let that sink in. The warm, red powder you sprinkle over your shakshuka; the cumin seeds you roast until they are fragrant and crisp. It may contain a poisonous mixture of substances that Europe itself has removed from the market.

At The Good Spice, we find that indigestible. That's why this article: about what Foodwatch found exactly, how banned toxins still end up on your plate, and why we stubbornly continue to choose pesticides-free spices. Not as a sales pitch, but because you should simply be able to know what's in your food.

What Foodwatch discovered

The figures from the study are not subtle. Of the 64 tested products, 49 contained residues of one or more pesticides. 45 products contained substances not permitted in the EU. Fourteen samples even exceeded the legally permitted limit. They simply should not have been on the shelves. And spices stood out negatively: every tested sample of paprika powder, chili, and cumin was contaminated. No exceptions, no coincidences. A pattern.

The products came from four European countries, including the Netherlands. So this is not a far-fetched issue: it's very likely to be in your cupboard too.

The poison boomerang: banned in Europe, yet back on your plate

How can something that is forbidden still end up in your kitchen cupboard? The answer is – in Foodwatch's words – the 'poison boomerang'.

Pesticides that are no longer allowed in the EU, often because they are harmful to humans or the environment, can still be produced by European factories and exported to countries outside the EU. There, crops are sprayed with them, including spices.

And then that harvest, including residues, simply re-enters Europe as an imported product. Six of the pesticides Foodwatch found were demonstrably exported from EU member states in 2024–2025. Chlorfenapyr, bifenthrin, clothianidin — names you don't want to taste, and you shouldn't have to taste them.

The ironic thing about it: Europe acknowledges that these substances are too dangerous to use here, but allows their production and export, and then simply consumes the difference itself, through imports.

Foodwatch rightly calls this a boomerang. We call it a design flaw in the system.

Why spices are particularly vulnerable

It's no coincidence that spices fare so poorly. Spices are dried, and drying concentrates: what was once spread across a whole plant in the field will soon be compressed into a handful of powder, and any residues along with it.

It has happened to us, for example, that residues of a certain toxin were present in the drying facilities our farmer used. This contaminated the harvest we wanted to buy, and we had to reject this entire harvest (turmeric). That's how persistent this toxin is.

Then there's the supply chain. Most supermarket spices travel a long, anonymous route: traded in bulk, mixed, repackaged, changing hands countless times.

By the time it becomes a jar of 'paprika powder' on a shelf, no one can tell you which field it came from. And where the chain is long and anonymous, control disappears. Each individual substance might remain below the norm, but what the accumulation of ten, twelve, eighteen substances in one jar does to you has barely been investigated.

That's not reassuring. That's a gap in our knowledge that makes you feel uneasy.

How we do it differently: spices without pesticides

This is where the work of The Good Spice begins. Our Single Origin Spices do not come from an anonymous bulk stream, but from a single origin, from growers we know and visit. Our turmeric grows in the Jaintia Hills in India, and is collected by our partner Remdor from small-scale farmers. Unsprayed, without chemical pesticides.

That ‘unsprayed’ is not just a pretty word on the packaging; it’s precisely why we keep the chain so short. Because only when you know who cultivates your spice, and how, can you vouch for what’s in it.

A short supply chain is also fairer to the other side: the farmer who does the work receives a direct price instead of the residual value after eight intermediaries. On every can, you'll find a QR code that takes you directly to the harvest information for that exact spice.

Not a marketing trick, but providing information that others might prefer to keep hidden. We know our chains from field to can.

What you can do

You don't need to be a research laboratory to make better choices. Ask where your spices come from and distrust the answer 'we don't know'.

Choose Single Origin over anonymous bulk. Scan the QR code and demand transparency, even from other brands. And support Foodwatch's call to stop the so-called 'omnibus': a European legislative proposal that precisely now threatens to weaken pesticide control, residue limits, and import inspections. Less oversight is absolutely the last thing this research justifies.

Bland is Banned and so is poison

Cooking is adventure, curiosity, daring to taste. But adventure doesn't mean you don't know what you're bringing into your home. Spices without pesticides shouldn't be a luxury, but the norm. At The Good Spice, we make that minimum our starting point: pure spices, single origin, organically grown, and a chain short enough to be fair.