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 NEW DELHI — About 12 percent of spices brought to the United States are contaminated with insect parts, whole insects, rodent hairs and other things, according to an analysis of spice imports by federal food authorities. 
 
 The finding released on Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration is part of a comprehensive look at the safety of spice imports that has been years in the making. The federal authorities also found that nearly 7 percent of spice imports examined by federal inspectors were contaminated with salmonella, a toxic bacteria that can cause severe illness in humans. 
 
 The shares of imported spices contaminated with insect parts and salmonella were twice those found in other types of imported food, federal food officials said. 
 
 The agency’s findings “are a wake-up call” to spice producers, said Jane M. Van Doren, a food and spice official at the F.D.A. “It means: ‘Hey, you haven’t solved the problems.’ ” 
 
 The agency called spice contamination “a systemic challenge” and said most of the insects found in spices were the kinds that thrive in warehouses and other storage facilities, suggesting that the industry’s problems result not from poor harvesting practices but poor storage and processing. 
 
 John Hallagan, a spokesman for the American Spice Trade Association, said Wednesday that he had not seen the report, so he could not comment on it. But spice manufacturers have argued in the past that food manufacturers often treat imported spices before marketing them, so F.D.A. findings of contamination levels in its import screening program do not mean that spices sold to consumers are dangerous. 
 
 F.D.A. inspectors have found that some spices that claim to have been treated are contaminated nonetheless. And the high levels of filth from insects and rodents is a problem that is not easily resolved because, unlike with salmonella contamination, simply cooking or heating the spices will not rid the products of the problem. Insects can also be a source of salmonella contamination. 
 
 What share of the nearly 1.2 million annual salmonella illnesses in the United States result from contaminated spices is unclear, officials said. Fewer than 2,000 people had their illnesses definitively tied to contaminated spices from 1973 to 2010, and most people eat spices in small quantities. But people often fail to remember eating spices when asked what foods might have sickened them, so problems related to spices could be seriously underreported, officials said. 
 
 Recent legislation in the United States grants the F.D.A. the power to refuse entry of foods that the agency even suspects might be contaminated — strong leverage to demand changes in harvesting, handling and manufacturing practices in foreign countries. 
 
 Spice imports from Mexico and India have been found to have the highest rate of contamination. Nearly one-quarter of the spices, oils and food colorings used in the United States comes from India, according to the F.D.A. 
 
 The F.D.A. commissioner, Margaret A. Hamburg, had intended to visit India this fall and meet with spice industry officials to discuss the agency’s concerns about spice safety, but the government shutdown delayed her plans, she said. Indian spice officials are offering incentives to get farmers to change some traditional harvest and handling practices that could lead to contamination. 
 
 Michael R. Taylor, deputy commissioner for foods at the F.D.A., said that the spice industry needs to clean up poor storage practices, a difficult effort. 
 
 “There is no magic wand for any of the problem we’re addressing,” Mr. Taylor said. 

 About 12% of spices imported into the U.S. each year is contaminated with insects, animal excrement, rodent hair and even rubber bands, according to a Food and Drug Administration draft report released Wednesday. 
 
 The study was conducted in response to recent cases of salmonella found in imported spices. It looked at ways to reduce the rates of human illness caused by contamination in the seasonings. 
 
 “Nearly all of the insects found in spice samples were stored product pests, indicating inadequate packing or storage conditions. The presence of rodent hair (without a root) in spices is generally indicative of contamination by rodent feces,” the report said. 
 
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 The FDA called the problem “systemic” and identified 14 outbreaks from 1973 to 2010 that sickened 2,000 people and hospitalized 128 worldwide. 
 
 The relatively small number of outbreaks over that time may be because consumers use only small amounts of spices each time, the agency said. 
 
 Still, the FDA found 7% of imported spices were contaminated with salmonella after sampling 2,800 shipments from 2007 to 2009, the report said. 
 
 The bacteria kills 400 people and sickens about 1.2 million each year in the U.S. 
 
 Inspectors found salmonella on ginger and poppy seed from India, black pepper and red pepper from Japan and allspice from Turkey. 
 
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 Bloomberg News 
 
 Insect fragments and animal hairs taint 12 percent of imported spices, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a report. 
 
 The FDA said it looked at the safety of spices after outbreaks involving the seasonings. The agency also found pathogens in the spices, including salmonella, and suggested the spice industry look at options to mitigate risk including training to stress preventive controls. 
 
 “Nearly all of the insects found in spice samples were stored product pests, indicating inadequate packing or storage conditions,” the agency wrote in the draft report released yesterday. “The presence of rodent hair without the root in spices generally is generally indicative of contamination by rodent feces.” 
 
 FDA’s study identified 14 outbreaks involving spices from 1973 to 2010 that resulted in 2,000 people reporting illnesses worldwide. The number of outbreaks may be low because people use small amounts of spices on food or cook the seasonings before eating, as well as safety measures taken by the industry, the agency said. 
 
 The FDA sampled 2,844 imported dry spice shipments from fiscal 2007 through fiscal 2009 and found about 7 percent tested positive for salmonella, twice the rate of other FDA regulated food products, the agency said in the report. The agency found the highest prevalence of salmonella in leaf-based seasonings like basil and oregano and identified Mexico as the country with the highest percent of exports of contaminated spices, followed by India. 
 
 Largest Importer 
 
 The U.S. is one of the largest importers of spices with more than 80 percent of the supply provided by other countries, the FDA said. About 400 people in the U.S. die from salmonella poisoning each year and 42,000 cases are reported annually, though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said underreporting may make the actual number of cases about 29 times higher. The infection can cause diarrhea and abdominal cramps. 
 
 About 3.4 percent of the 17,508 shipments of other imported food tested positive in the FDA’s sampling. The prevalence of tainted spices is about the same as the agency found 30 years ago in a smaller sampling experiment. 
 
 The FDA published the data on salmonella contamination in the journal Food Microbiology a year ago and issued yesterday’s report to warn consumers about the risk. The agency called the findings “surprising” at the time because spices have a low water content compared with other foods. 
 
 Industry Response 
 
 McCormick & Co. (MKC:US), the largest U.S. seller of flavor products by revenue, posted a statement on the quality of its spices and herbs on its website. 
 
 “Whether they’re grown in the United States or other parts of the world, McCormick exercises the same high level of quality control throughout our supply chain -- including several million ingredient analyses each year and a natural steam pasteurization process,” the Sparks, Maryland-based company said. 
 
 Red and black pepper intended for use in Italian deli meats were implicated in a 2010 salmonella outbreak that affected 272 people in 44 states and Washington, D.C., according to the CDC. Pepper falls under the “fruit” category of seasonings, as does cumin and mustard. 
 
 Fruit spices were preceded by leaf and root seasonings in prevalence of salmonella. Turmeric and ginger are examples of root spices. Bark or flower spices like cinnamon and saffron had the lowest levels of salmonella prevalence. 
 
 Almost 9 percent of 1,057 spice shipments from India were contaminated with salmonella, the FDA said, compared with 14 percent of 136 shipments from Mexico. Canada came in with the lowest salmonella presence at less than 1 percent of its 110 shipments. 
 
 To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Edney in Washington at aedney@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net
– Great, the FDA has identified one more thing for people to worry about in the kitchen: spices. The most comprehensive testing yet finds that 7% of spices imported into the country are contaminated with salmonella, reports the Los Angeles Times. That's twice as high as other foods inspected by the agency. More unappetizing news: 12% of imported spices are contaminated with what the FDA describes as "filth"—think insects, rodent hair, and animal excrement, reports the New York Times. The agency identified leafy seasonings such as basil and oregano as at the highest risk for salmonella, reports Bloomberg, and it said Mexico shipped the highest percentage of contaminated spices, followed by India. An FDA official called the findings a "wake-up call" for the spice industry. “It means: ‘Hey, you haven’t solved the problems.'”