How to Write a Spice RFQ: Specs, Certs, and MOQ

Buyer’s snapshot

In 2024, Europe imported 676,000 tonnes of spices and herbs, 399,000 tonnes of it from developing countries (CBI, Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries, market data updated February 2026). Very little of that volume moves on a one-line request to quote.
ASTA and the European Spice Association measure different things. ASTA publishes defect tolerances, ESA publishes chemical minima. An RFQ citing only one of them is a half-written spec.
Regulation (EU) 2023/915 caps aflatoxin B1 at 5.0 micrograms per kg in pepper, nutmeg, turmeric and mixed dried spices. The EU coumarin limits sit on the finished food, not on the cinnamon, so a buyer has to impose that parameter by contract.
Silk Route Ventures (SRV) ships bulk Ceylon spices against the buyer’s own spec from a BRCGS and FSSC 22000 V6 audited facility in Matale, at 50 kg per SKU on a first order, with a COA on every batch.
The clause matrix in the packaging and commercial section below is the part to copy into your next RFQ.

Most spice RFQs that reach a Sri Lankan export desk are underspecified. They name a commodity, a grade letter, a target price and a volume, then wait. What comes back is a range of quotes that cannot be compared, because each supplier has silently filled in the missing parameters differently. One priced whole quills, one priced quillings. One assumed ASTA cleanliness, one assumed nothing. This piece is the parameter list a procurement team needs to close those gaps, drawn from the standards that actually govern the trade.

What a spice RFQ has to settle before anyone can price it

A quotable spice RFQ resolves six blocks: botanical identity, physical form and grade, chemical minima, cleanliness and contaminant limits, certification and documentation, and the commercial frame of MOQ, packaging, Incoterm and lead time. Miss one and the supplier either guesses or pads the price to cover the guess. Both outcomes cost the buyer money, and neither is visible on the quote sheet.

Botanical identity comes first because it is the parameter that silently invalidates everything downstream. Cinnamon is the obvious case, where Cinnamomum verum and Cinnamomum cassia are different species with different standards, different defect tolerances and coumarin contents separated by orders of magnitude. Write the binomial into the RFQ, not the common name, and if cinnamon is the commodity, work from the longer treatment in specifying Cinnamomum verum on a sourcing RFQ. The same discipline applies to nutmeg (Myristica fragrans), cloves (Syzygium aromaticum) and cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum).

Which specification standard should the RFQ cite?

There are three families of spice standard and they do not overlap. ASTA’s Cleanliness Specifications for Spices, Seeds and Herbs (effective 28 April 1999) sets defect tolerances: dead whole insects, excreta in mg per lb, mold and insect-defiled percentages, extraneous foreign matter. The European Spice Association’s Quality Minima Document, Revision 5, published 2018, sets chemical parameters: maximum ash, maximum acid-insoluble ash, maximum moisture, minimum volatile oil. ISO publishes the per-commodity specification and the test methods both of the others point to.

A buyer who cites only ASTA has bought a clean spice of unknown strength. A buyer who cites only ESA has bought a strong spice of unknown cleanliness. Neither is a complete purchase spec, and the gap is where price differences hide.

The relevant ISO numbers are worth naming individually in the RFQ, because a supplier who has to look them up is telling you something:

Commodity	ISO specification	Notes
Ceylon cinnamon	ISO 6539:2014	Covers Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume only. Cassia sits under ISO 6538.
Black and white pepper	ISO 959-1:1998, ISO 959-2:1998	ISO 959-2 is currently under revision.
Cloves	ISO 2254:2004	Whole and ground.
Nutmeg and mace	ISO 6577:2002	Both commodities in one standard.
Turmeric	ISO 5562:1983	Whole or ground.
Cardamom	ISO 882-1:1993, ISO 882-2:1993	Part 1 whole capsules, Part 2 seeds. Commercial tiers are covered in the cardamom grading guide.

The method standards matter just as much. Volatile oil is determined by hydrodistillation per ISO 6571, moisture per ISO 939, acid-insoluble ash per ISO 930, extraneous matter per ISO 927, piperine per ISO 5564, and sampling per ISO 948. Naming the method alongside the number closes the most common dispute in the category, which is two labs reporting different results because they ran different tests.

What does volatile oil content actually tell a buyer?

Volatile oil is the strength parameter, expressed in millilitres per 100 g on a dry basis, and unlike ash and moisture it is a minimum rather than a maximum. The European Spice Association’s Revision 5 minima show how far apart the commodities sit: cloves at 14, nutmeg at 5 to 6.5 depending on grade, mace at 5.0 (the three are usually specified together, as set out in the cloves, nutmeg and mace procurement spec primer), cardamom at 4.0, whole turmeric at 2.5, black pepper at 2.0, white pepper at 1.5, ginger at 1.5, ground turmeric at 1.5, and cinnamon at just 0.7 to 1.0.

Spice	Minimum volatile oil (ml/100 g)	Max ash (%)	Max acid-insoluble ash (%)	Max moisture (%)
Cloves	14	7.0	0.5	12
Nutmeg	5 to 6.5	3.0	0.5	10
Mace	5.0	4.0	0.5	10
Cardamom	4.0	9.0	2.5	12
Turmeric, whole	2.5	8.0	2.0	12
Black pepper	2.0	7.0	1.5	12
White pepper	1.5	3.5	0.3	12
Ginger	1.5	8.0	2.0	12
Turmeric, ground	1.5	9.0	2.5	10
Cinnamon	0.7 to 1.0	7.0	2.0	14

Source: European Spice Association Quality Minima Document, Revision 5 (2018), quality minima table. Values on a dry basis.

Two consequences for the RFQ. First, cinnamon’s volatile oil floor is so low that the parameter cannot distinguish Ceylon from cassia on its own, which is why species authentication belongs in the spec as a separate clause. Second, form changes the number. ISO 959-1:1998 sets whole black pepper at a 2.0 minimum but ground black pepper at 1.0, and notes that volatile oil “should be determined immediately after grinding.” If the RFQ is for ground material, specify when the assay is run as well as what it must show.

Writing the cleanliness and contaminant clauses

ASTA’s table is where defect tolerances live, and the cinnamon-versus-cassia rows are the clearest illustration of why the botanical name has to be in the RFQ. Cinnamon is allowed 1.00% mold by weight and 1.0% insect-defiled. Cassia is allowed 5.00% mold and 2.50% insect-defiled. Same shelf, same consumer-facing name, five times the mold tolerance. ASTA’s own note is that these specifications were designed to meet or exceed the US FDA’s Defect Action Levels.

Spice (ASTA, 1999)	Whole dead insects (count)	Mold, % by weight	Insect-defiled, % by weight	Extraneous foreign matter, %
Cinnamon	2	1.00	1.0	0.50
Cassia	2	5.00	2.50	0.50
Black pepper	2	see note	see note	1.00
Cloves	4	1.00	1.00	1.00
Mace	4	2.00	1.00	0.50
Turmeric	3	3.00	2.50	0.50
Ginger	4	see note	see note	1.00
Cardamom	4	1.00	1.00	0.50

Note: black pepper and ginger carry combined mold-and-infested criteria rather than separate percentages (1% for black pepper, 3% for ginger). Clove stems are permitted at under 5% by weight over and above the extraneous matter tolerance.

The contaminant clauses are regulatory rather than commercial, and they belong in the RFQ because they determine whether the container clears at destination. For EU-bound material, Regulation (EU) 2023/915 sets aflatoxin B1 at 5.0 micrograms per kg and the sum of B1, B2, G1 and G2 at 10.0 micrograms per kg for Capsicum species, Piper species, nutmeg, turmeric and mixtures of dried spices containing any of them. Ochratoxin A is capped at 15 micrograms per kg for dried spices generally and 20 for Capsicum.

Pesticides work differently and catch buyers out. Regulation (EC) No 396/2005 applies a default maximum residue level of 0.01 mg/kg wherever a pesticide is not specifically listed. The practical consequence is that an RFQ should require compliance with 396/2005 as amended, referenced dynamically, rather than attaching a static residue list that goes stale. Ethylene oxide is a separate clause again: the treatment is banned under EU legislation including for material treated outside the EU before importation, and the residue definition the European Commission works to is the sum of ethylene oxide and 2-chloroethanol expressed as ethylene oxide. EFSA’s position, quoted in the Commission’s 2022 technical summary, is that genotoxicity and carcinogenicity of 2-chloroethanol cannot be excluded and “no safe level can be derived.”

Two further ESA parameters are cheap to specify and rarely included. Water activity has a recommended target of maximum 0.65, which is the microbial-stability lever that moisture percentage alone does not give you. Foreign matter carries a critical limit at objects greater than 2 mm.

Grade names are not a specification

A grade letter is a commercial shorthand, not a measurable clause, and the numbers circulating for Ceylon cinnamon grades on supplier websites frequently contradict both ISO and each other. The Ceylon cinnamon grade sheet from Alba to C5 sets out the commercial ladder in full. The authoritative table is ISO 6539:2014, Table 1, which classifies Sri Lankan-type quills by maximum diameter, minimum whole quills per kg, and permitted extent of foxing, the reddish-brown surface patching defined in the standard.

Grade (ISO 6539:2014)	Max quill diameter (mm)	Max foxing
Alba	6	Nil
C 00000 special	6	10%
C 00000	10	10%
C 0000	13	10%
C 000	16	15%
C 00	17	20%
C 0	19	25%
M 0000	19	60%
H 1	23	25%
H 2	25	40%
H 3	38	65%

The trade commonly renders the Continental and Mexican zero-strings as C5, C4, M5 and M4. That mapping is convention rather than something the standard states, so an RFQ is safer specifying the ISO designation and the diameter together. ISO 6539 also caps extraneous matter in whole cinnamon at 1% by mass per ISO 927, and permits quillings to contain up to 3% featherings and chips.

Pepper has an equivalent trap, on top of the origin differences covered in the black pepper origin comparison. ISO 959-1 defines three commercial stages, and an RFQ that says “black pepper” without naming one has not specified a product. NP is non-processed, SP is semi-processed, and P is processed, meaning cleaned, prepared or graded. The physical requirements differ accordingly: extraneous matter at 2.5% maximum for NP or SP against 1.5% for P, light berries at 10% against 5.0%, bulk density at 450 g/l minimum against 490. The standard requires the commercial stage to be marked on every package, alongside batch code, net mass, producing country and destination, plus, in the standard’s own words, “any other information requested by the buyer, such as the year of harvest and the date of packaging.”

That last clause is the most underused line in spice procurement. Harvest year and packing date are free to request and they are the difference between a volatile oil figure that holds at arrival and one that does not.

Through 2026 the SRV trade desk has seen the same pattern often enough to plan around it: an RFQ arrives naming a grade and a target price, with no test method, no harvest year and no destination market. The quote that comes back is necessarily conservative, because the supplier is pricing the risk of the missing clauses. Buyers who add the parameters get a tighter number, not a higher one. The specification is the negotiating position.

Which certifications to request, and which ones gate the listing

Certifications split into two groups: the ones that qualify a supplier and the ones that qualify a shipment. Request both, separately, because a supplier can hold an excellent certificate whose scope excludes the process your product needs.

On the supplier side, BRCGS is frequently the gating standard for UK and EU retail listings, and FSSC 22000 V6 is the GFSI-recognised filter most multinational buyers use to qualify Asian suppliers. The FSSC 22000 V6 scope and audit pack explains what that certificate does and does not cover. Ask for the scope statement alongside the certificate number, and check that it covers the actual process, whether that is grinding, sieving, tea cut or repacking. USDA Organic and EU Organic are per-SKU rather than per-site, so an RFQ for a six-SKU programme should ask which of the six are certified rather than whether the supplier is organic.

On the shipment side, US-bound buyers carry their own obligation. FSMA’s Foreign Supplier Verification Programs rule, codified at 21 CFR Part 1 Subpart L and finalised in November 2015, puts the hazard analysis, the supplier evaluation and the verification activities on the importer, not the exporter. The FDA published its guidance for industry in January 2023. An RFQ that asks the supplier to support the buyer’s FSVP file, with documented evidence rather than assurances, saves a round trip later. The 2026 Ceylon export compliance checklist for US and EU buyers lists the documents that request should name.

The category-specific risk justifies the paperwork. The FDA’s own analysis of spice shipments offered for entry to the United States between FY2007 and FY2009 found Salmonella in about 6.6% of shipments, roughly twice the average prevalence across all other imported FDA-regulated foods, with about 12% of shipments adulterated with filth. Of 79 source countries examined, 37 had contaminated shipments. A later retail survey found prevalence below 1% for each of eleven spice types, which is the same story read from the other end: the controls between import and shelf are doing the work, and the RFQ is where a buyer specifies them.

One label-side clause is easy to miss. Coumarin limits under Regulation (EC) No 1334/2008, Annex III Part B, apply to the finished food, not to the cinnamon: 50 mg/kg for traditional or seasonal bakery ware referencing cinnamon, 20 mg/kg for breakfast cereals including muesli, 15 mg/kg for other fine bakery ware, 5 mg/kg for desserts. Since no EU maximum applies to cinnamon as an ingredient, a formulator has to back-calculate the permissible raw material level and write it into the RFQ. The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment reports cassia at 700 to 12,200 mg/kg against Ceylon cinnamon at below detection to 190 mg/kg, and EFSA’s tolerable daily intake for coumarin is 0.1 mg per kg of body weight per day. For a cinnamon-forward SKU those numbers decide the species, and the species decides the label.

Buyers writing a cinnamon RFQ specifically should also note that “Ceylon cinnamon” has been a Protected Geographical Indication in the EU since Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/144 of 2 February 2022. The label phrase is legally reserved, which makes the botanical clause a compliance matter rather than a preference.

How should MOQ, packaging and lead time be phrased?

State the volume per SKU, not per order. This is where multi-SKU launches misjudge their own commitment: six spices at a 50 kg per SKU minimum is a 300 kg raw material buy, not a 50 kg one. Ask the supplier to quote the volume-tier breaks alongside the entry price so the path up is visible from the first order rather than renegotiated later.

Packaging belongs in the RFQ because it changes both cost and shelf life. Specify the primary pack (kraft pouch at 50 g through 1 kg, 25 kg or 50 kg sacks with an LDPE inner liner, glass jars), the case configuration, the pallet pattern and the labelling language for the destination market. For ground material, ask what barrier the pack provides, since volatile oil is what you are paying for and it does not survive a poor liner.

The clause matrix below is the compact version. Copy it, fill the right-hand column, and the responses become comparable.

RFQ block	What to write	Why it changes the quote
Botanical identity	Binomial, plus required verification method	Determines the applicable standard and the defect tolerance
Form and grade	ISO designation plus the measurable dimension	Grade letters alone are not measurable
Chemical minima	Volatile oil minimum, ash, acid-insoluble ash, moisture, each with ISO method	Sets the strength you are buying
Cleanliness	ASTA table reference for the specific commodity	Defect tolerance is a real cost driver
Contaminants	Reg. (EU) 2023/915, Reg. (EC) 396/2005 as amended, ethylene oxide clause	Determines clearance at destination
Microbiology	Total plate count, yeast and mould, Salmonella, E. coli, plus water activity target	Decides treatment method and cost
Certification	Site standards with scope statement, per-SKU organic status	Gates the retail listing
Documentation	COA per batch, certificate of origin, phytosanitary, organic transaction certificate	Determines whether the shipment can be sold on
Commercial	MOQ per SKU, volume-tier breaks, Incoterm, packaging, harvest year, lead time	Makes competing quotes comparable

Lead time deserves an explicit line rather than an assumption. Reading the returned paperwork is its own skill, and the guide to per-lot heavy metal and pesticide testing on a COA covers what the numbers mean once they arrive. Sample dispatch, production time from PO to dispatch, and freight transit are three separate clocks, and a launch plan that collapses them into one number will slip.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between ASTA and ESA specifications for spices?

ASTA’s Cleanliness Specifications set defect tolerances: dead insects, excreta, mold percentage, insect-defiled percentage and extraneous matter. The European Spice Association’s Quality Minima Document, Revision 5 (2018), sets chemical parameters: maximum ash, acid-insoluble ash and moisture, and minimum volatile oil. They measure different things, so a complete purchase specification cites both.

What volatile oil content should a spice RFQ specify?

Use the European Spice Association minima as the floor: cloves 14 ml/100 g, nutmeg 5 to 6.5, mace 5.0, cardamom 4.0, black pepper 2.0, white pepper 1.5, ginger 1.5, cinnamon 0.7 to 1.0. Specify the test method as ISO 6571 and, for ground material, require the assay immediately after grinding.

What are the EU aflatoxin limits for imported spices?

Regulation (EU) 2023/915 sets aflatoxin B1 at 5.0 micrograms per kg and the sum of B1, B2, G1 and G2 at 10.0 micrograms per kg for Capsicum species, Piper species, nutmeg, turmeric and mixtures of dried spices containing any of them. Ochratoxin A is capped at 15 micrograms per kg for dried spices, 20 for Capsicum.

Does SRV quote against a buyer’s own specification?

Yes. SRV supplies bulk Ceylon spices against the buyer’s spec sheet rather than a fixed catalogue grade, from a BRCGS and FSSC 22000 V6 audited facility in Matale. First-order MOQ is 50 kg per SKU, with volume-tier breaks at 500 kg, 1,000 kg and 2,500 kg, and a COA on every batch.

How many suppliers should a spice RFQ go to?

Enough to give a comparable range, which in practice means three to five, but only once the specification is complete. Sending an underspecified RFQ to more suppliers produces more quotes that cannot be compared, not better price discovery.

How Silk Route Ventures can help

Silk Route Ventures consolidates spice, herb, coconut, tea, capsule, plant-based, and functional food supply under one supplier, one set of certifications (BRCGS, FSSC 22000 V6, USDA Organic, EU Organic), one set of customs documents, one consolidated freight schedule. Distributors and procurement teams running multi-category programmes can move five to nine supplier relationships into one without losing breadth, and quote against a single spec format rather than reconciling nine. First-order MOQ is 50 kg per SKU, with volume-tier pricing at 500 kg, 1,000 kg, and 2,500 kg breaks. Contact us to send an inquiry for the consolidated catalogue and a freight-consolidation quote.

Sources

American Spice Trade Association, “ASTA’s Cleanliness Specifications for Spices, Seeds and Herbs,” (effective 28 April 1999). Retrieved 2026-09-09. https://astaspice.org/resources/asta-cleanliness-specifications
European Spice Association, “Quality Minima Document, Revision 5,” (2018). Retrieved 2026-09-09. https://www.esa-spices.org/
International Organization for Standardization, “ISO 6539:2014, Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume): Specification,” (2014). Retrieved 2026-09-09. https://www.iso.org/standard/64797.html
International Organization for Standardization, “ISO 959-1:1998, Pepper (Piper nigrum L.), whole or ground. Specification, Part 1: Black pepper,” (1998). Retrieved 2026-09-09. https://www.iso.org/standard/27319.html
European Commission, “Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915 on maximum levels for certain contaminants in food,” (2023). Retrieved 2026-09-09. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32023R0915
European Commission, “EU legislation on maximum residue levels, Regulation (EC) No 396/2005,” (2005). Retrieved 2026-09-09. https://food.ec.europa.eu/plants/pesticides/maximum-residue-levels/eu-legislation-mrls_en
European Commission DG SANTE, “Summary of the Technical Meeting on Ethylene Oxide,” (2022). Retrieved 2026-09-09. https://food.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2022-02/rasff_ethylene-oxide-incident_e410_crisis-coord_20220120_sum.pdf
US Food and Drug Administration, “Questions and Answers: Improving the Safety of Spices,” (2018). Retrieved 2026-09-09. https://www.fda.gov/food/risk-and-safety-assessments-food/questions-answers-improving-safety-spices
US Food and Drug Administration, “FSMA Final Rule on Foreign Supplier Verification Programs for Importers of Food for Humans and Animals,” (2015, guidance 2023). Retrieved 2026-09-09. https://www.fda.gov/food/food-safety-modernization-act-fsma/fsma-final-rule-foreign-supplier-verification-programs-fsvp-importers-food-humans-and-animals
European Commission, “Regulation (EC) No 1334/2008 on flavourings, Annex III Part B,” (2008). Retrieved 2026-09-09. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2008/1334/oj/eng
German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), “FAQ on coumarin in cinnamon and other foods.” Retrieved 2026-09-09. https://www.bfr.bund.de/en/service/frequently-asked-questions/topic/faq-on-coumarin-in-cinnamon-and-other-foods/
European Commission, “Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/144 registering ‘Ceylon cinnamon’ as a Protected Geographical Indication,” (2 February 2022). Retrieved 2026-09-09. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2022/144/oj/eng
CBI, Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries, “What is the demand for spices and herbs on the European market?,” (updated February 2026). Retrieved 2026-09-09. https://www.cbi.eu/market-information/spices-herbs/what-demand

How to Write a Spice RFQ: Specs, Certifications, and MOQ Questions