Purity in Sourcing

Schwartz, the UK leading brand of McCormick & Company, Incorporated, a global leader in flavour, today released the following statement in response to the study by Professor Chris Elliott, food safety academic at Belfast Queen’s University, regarding adulteration of dried oregano purchased from the marketplace in the UK and Ireland. Please attribute the following points to Roger Lawrence, McCormick Corporate Vice President, Global Quality Assurance:



We are pleased this issue is getting attention and believe it’s important consumers learn all spices and herbs aren’t created equal. While Professor Elliott’s study found as much as 30 to 70 percent non-oregano material in other brands, Schwartz oregano is simply oregano delivering 100 percent pure flavour. Our oregano contains no other green leaves like myrtle, cistus and olive.

McCormick is an industry leader in resources and investment towards spice and herb quality and safety programmes. Our quality assurance programme ensures our products, including oregano, consistently deliver 100 percent pure flavour through:

Purity in Sourcing: McCormick sources premium oregano that can be traced from field to bottle. By sourcing whole leaves, our supplier mitigates the chance for added ingredients and contamination. McCormick has established a long term strategic alliance with a reliable supplier who works with more than 8,000 farmers, and each farmer is tested against our purity criteria.

We Test to Guarantee our Spices and Herbs are High Quality: While other oregano may contain up to 70 percent green fillers, Schwartz whole oregano leaves are tested for fillers and foreign matter. We conduct millions of product analyses each year by testing for contaminants, flavour characteristics and more to ensure the safety and quality of our products. Any materials that don’t meet our 100 percent standard are returned to the supplier.

Oregano Should Taste like Oregano: Our oregano is gently dried to preserve its vibrant green color, free from stems and sticks. Our cleaning, milling and packaging process ensures oregano leaves are carefully handled, preserving the oils that deliver high-quality oregano flavour: the robust, earthy, green, slightly medicinal, minty and peppery flavour that gives oregano its strong, classic “pizza” herb quality.

For more than 125 years, McCormick has had an unmatched track record in delivering safe, high-quality products to our consumers. It is important to purchase your spices and herbs from a trusted resource. Because of our unwavering commitment to quality, McCormick continues to be the taste you trust.