The population-wide average dietary intake of spices in New Zealand was estimated to be 0.36 kg/person/ year using importation data obtained from New Zealand Customs. For comparison, the WHO/Global Environment Monitoring System (GEMS) regional dietary intake for all spices in European diets is 0.5 g/ person/day (0.18 kg/person/year) (WHO/GEMS, 1999).The US 97.5 percentile value of 2.8 kg/person/year is about 7.7-fold higher than the estimated NZ mean spice consumption value. These comparative values are not inconsistent with our population wide estimate using importation data.