Dried herbs and spices from general Supermarkets - Raw or not raw?

[Up LEAP 100 Billion]

Hi,

My supermarket sells dried herbs and spices in those very small thin glass bottles with dotted holes at the top so you can sprinkle directly to food etc. Does anyone know if these type of things are made without heating? Are the these herbs and spices in gernal supermarkets too commerical for it to be raw? Otherwise I have a health food shop a little further away which sells dried herbs and spices in small see-through packets. The spices I'm wanting to get are sage, cumin, coriander etc.

Any feedback would be great!

[MaddMelon]

Most of all herbs, even herbs that you find in the health store, have been irradiated. (exposed to extreme radiation to "cook" or to enhance colour, or ripeness) I'm fairly sure that this isn't considered Raw. It's very frustrating, I know. I like a lot of spicy, middle eastern food, and it's difficult to find good spices. Another issue, is that even in the health food stores, the organic spices don't say if they've been irradiated or not, and although I'm sure there are some that are fine, there are a lot of companies out there that don't care about health, and get that stamp of organic approval just to make more money. Your best bet is to buy fresh organic herbs whenever possible, which can be a lot more fun, and flavorful. When you absolutely need a spice, there are a quite a few brands at the health food store that claim to be organic, but there's no garantee that they're raw- of course, unless they blatantly state that they are.

I'm sure somebody else will know of a company that offers raw spices. Just figured I'd put in my two cents.

[Up LEAP 100 Billion]

Thanks for your reply. That is frustrating, a lot of recipes I wanted to make from Alissa Cohen's book have spices in! Those burgers I were really looking foward to and I'm sure they contain 2 or 3 different herbs/spices, and the only fresh ones available to me are the common ones like parsley, basil, coriander, thyme, mint, dill and chives.

For anyone who's made the burgers from Alissa's book, how contributing are the herbs/spices in the recipe to the overal taste of the burgers? Can any of the herbs above replace them and still taste good and near the original taste?

[Lay-Lay]

I wouldn't trust them to be raw. I dry my own or dehydrate them and the tastes are superb.

[elian]

I recommend getting them from the health food store in the packets. Find out where they get them. I know our store orders from Frontier (which you can order on the web http://www.frontiercoop.com). They are really cheap at our coop. They are REALLY fresh and will make you not want to ever buy something from the traditional store again.

Good luck!