The risk assessment
indicates that there is an excess cancer risk for New
Zealand consumers of spices in the range of 0.8 in a
million to 1.7 in a million as a conservative central estimate
and about 7 in a million to 14 in a million for a
worst-case intake consumer. The risk to the average
person would be less than these estimates due to the
conservative assumption of no loss of ETO levels
during cooking. The risk of not sterilising potentially
contaminated spices is widely thought to be of greater
priority for protection of public health. However, irradiation
sterilisation has been shown to be an effective
alternative to ETO fumigation of spices