2. Materials and methods
2.1. Sampling
Batches of spice and dried vegetables aimed for the food industry were supplied and sampled (approximately 200e400 g) during a one-year period by a spice distributor operating in Finland. The sampling was focused on dried onion products, which according to the collaborating spice distributor, frequently showed high numbers of aerobic mesophilic microbes often exceeding the limit of 106 CFU/g specified in the purchase agreement. Product details including those on treatment or decontamination methods were recorded from the product specification sheets obtained from the collaborating distributor. Furthermore, the colony counts for mesophilic aerobic microbes (aerobic plate counts, APC) had been determined on Plate Count Agar at 30 C as part of the spices distributor's own quality control program. Products, number of samples included, and the mean APC for each product included are listed in Table 1. The dried onion products sampled had been produced and processed in India. Other products had been processed either in France, Germany, the Netherlands or Spain, but for most products, the harvesting country of the produce was unknown