Chili & Hot Sauces (Sriracha-Style, Sweet Chili, Harissa, Peri-Peri, Sambal)

Thai chili sauce, harissa, peri-peri and sambal, screened for Sudan dyes and aflatoxin

Chili and hot sauces are other sauces under HS 2103.90, a heading led in 2024 UN Comtrade export declarations by the USA (USD 1.74 billion), Italy (USD 1.71 billion), China (USD 1.21 billion), Germany (USD 1.03 billion), Thailand (USD 978 million), the Netherlands (USD 953 million) and Mexico (USD 730 million). The heading holds every other sauce too, but the chili sauce trade runs through several of those origins: Thailand for sriracha-style and sweet chili sauce, China for chili oils and garlic chili sauce, Tunisia for harissa, Malaysia and Indonesia for sambal, and Mexico and the USA for pepper hot sauces.

The risk sits in the chilli. Sudan I was found in chilli products imported into the EU in 2003 and in a 2005 UK recall where one batch of adulterated chilli powder reached Worcester sauce and other foods, and Regulation (EU) 2019/1793 still sets Sudan dye testing for listed foods and origins. Aflatoxin limits under Regulation (EU) 2023/915 apply to capsicum and to mixtures containing it. For the US, a hot sauce made from low-acid peppers, garlic or tomatoes and brought to an equilibrium pH of 4.6 or below with vinegar or another acid is an acidified food under 21 CFR 114, and it cannot be shipped to the US unless the plant is registered as a food canning establishment and the process is filed with FDA. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers generic chili and hot sauces from factories in Thailand, China, Tunisia, Mexico, the USA, Malaysia and Indonesia against the competent-authority health certificate, a certificate of analysis covering Sudan dyes, aflatoxin and pH for the lot, a certificate of origin and, where the market needs it, a halal certificate. EU labels emphasise the 14 Annex II allergens under Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, with soy, sesame and gluten common in Asian chili sauces; Gulf labels follow GSO 9 in Arabic. Minimum orders are confirmed per product and pack. Cartons ship in 20-ft or 40-ft dry containers on FOB, CFR and CIF terms. Send the sauce, heat level, pack, label market and discharge port, and the enquiry is screened and worked against it.

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.