Curry powder and spices カレー粉・香辛料

How it appears on labels

Labeling rules

• If the combined weight of spices and spice extracts is 2% or less of the whole, they can be written together as “香辛料” (spices) or “混合香辛料” (mixed spices) (Food Labeling Standards Article 3; Consumer Affairs Agency Q&A Processed Foods-64). If they exceed 2%, each is written by name, or written like “香辛料（ターメリック、コリアンダー、その他香辛料）” (spices (turmeric, coriander, other spices)).
• For small packages made of many spices, such as curry powder, spices above 2% must be named, and those at 2% or less may be grouped as “その他香辛料” (other spices) (Consumer Affairs Agency Q&A Processed Foods-65).
• “香辛料” (spices) is a food ingredient, but “香辛料抽出物” (spice extract) is a food additive. Both are also different from the food additive “香料” (flavoring).

Good to know

• When the label says only “香辛料” (spices), you cannot tell from the label which spices they are. Some products, such as the curry roux from Sokensha, write the contents in parentheses.
• The three House Foods curry roux products (Java Curry, Kokumaro Curry, and Vermont Curry) say “カレーパウダー” (curry powder) rather than “カレー粉”. Kokumaro Curry also contains “焙煎フェヌグリーク” (roasted fenugreek), which is roasted fenugreek, one of the spices.
• In the food composition table, onion powder and garlic powder are also classified as spices (“香辛料類”). The Sokensha curry roux writes them in parentheses as “香辛料（オニオンパウダー、…）” (spices (onion powder, …)), and the M to M curry roux writes “オニオンパウダー” (onion powder) on its own.
• Among the products on this site, spices are in all 10 curry roux products, as well as in tomato ketchup, sauces, yakiniku sauce, mayonnaise, and soup stock.

Food composition data

Per 100 g of the edible portion. Source: MEXT, Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan (8th revised edition, 2023 supplement).

Products on this site that contain it

Product pages are in Japanese for now; each one reads every ingredient on the label.

Related pages

• Article: Capsaicin in chili peppers, the heat scale, and research
• Additive database: 香料 (flavoring)
• Article: Flavorings
• Products on this site: Curry and stew roux

Sources

• Food Labeling Standards (Cabinet Office Ordinance No. 10 of 2015) — e-Gov Japanese Law Search
• Q&A on the Food Labeling Standards (revised March 28, 2025) — Consumer Affairs Agency
• Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan (8th revised edition, 2023 supplement) — MEXT

Sources are in Japanese unless noted otherwise. This page is a translation of our Japanese page; if they differ, the Japanese page is the reference.

Other ingredients in this group

• Salt
• Sugar and sugars
• Fish sauce
• Soy sauce
• Vinegar (brewed / rice vinegar)
• Mirin and fermented rice seasoning
• Sake / wine
• Sesame
• Miso
• Chinese seasonings (doubanjiang, tianmianjiang, douchi)
• Honey