Product Information

Spice Ingredients:

There is nothing in our spices or spice blends other than pure food.  Only the best herbs, spices, vegetables, sugar and salts.  No weird anti caking ingredients, fillers, MSG or chemicals of any nature, PERIOD!

 

Product Guarantee:

We offer the finest spices and spice blends and are of the highest quality available. The spice blends are designed to be “in the style” of a particular region of the country or cuinary theme.  They will not replicate Aunt Jane’s 100 year old family recipe.  The spice blends are intended to give you the flavor essence of that region or theme.

If for some reason you are not satisfied with our product, we will offer you an exchange, credit or refund within 30 days of purchase date.  Please see Returns under Ordering Information.

 

Product Warranty:

Spice grinder: The spice grinder should give you many refill uses of the spice grinder, but it is made out of plastic and will eventually not work as well as it did originally.  This is the normal wear of tear of the product and will not be replaced.  If you receive a spice grinder that does not work upon it's initial use, we will gladly replace the spice grinder top.  Please email us at support@grategrinds.com and we will send you a new spice grinder top quickly.

Grate Racks:  Under normal indoor residential use of storing spice bottles, these hand made oak spice racks should last a lifetime.  If you have an issue with one of our Grate Racks, please email us for a RAN (Return Authorization Number) and we will repair or replace your spice rack at support@grategrinds.com.  Again, just to be clear, these Grate Racks are warrantied for normal indoor residential use for storing spice bottles!

 

Product Safety:

Our spice grinders and bulk spice bottles have tamper resistant shrink wrapping around the lids or grinder tops for security.  If for some reason your product arrives without the tamper resistant seal in place please, notify us at support@grategrinds.com and we will replace your unused product, with a return shipping label in your replacement shipping box you receive.

 

Gluten Free Statement:

Our products do not contain any gluten and they are packaged in a facility that does not contain any gluten.  However, some of our suppliers may have products that contain gluten in their facilities, thus these spices and spice blends are not “certified gluten free”  nor can we legally call our products gluten free.

 

California Residents - California Proposition 65 Statement, Information & Warning:

Like most government programs, the initial intentions were good and on the right path, but down the road they veer off into the neighborhood of ridiculousness.  Since we are not going to go through the absurdity of having every ingredient tested for the possibility that our natural herbs, spices or salts may contain one of the over 800 chemicals, KNOWN to the state of California to cause cancer or birth defects, we are posting this generic statement to be compliant and avoid any absurd legal actions:

WARNING: These products contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.


 Here are some informational excerpts from the Wikipedia information on California Proposition 65 (1986):

Proposition 65 (formally titled "The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986") is a California law passed by direct voter initiative in 1986 by a 63%-37% vote. Its goals are to protect drinking water sources from toxic substances that may cause cancer and birth defects and to reduce or eliminate exposures to those chemicals generally, for example in consumer products, by requiring warnings in advance of those exposures.

Proposition 65 is administered by Cal/EPA's California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA). Proposition 65 regulates substances officially listed by California as having a 1 in 100,000 chance of causing cancer over a 70-year period or birth defects or other reproductive harm in two ways. The first statutory requirement of Proposition 65 prohibits businesses from knowingly discharging listed substances into drinking water sources, or onto land where the substances can pass into drinking water sources. The second prohibits businesses from knowingly exposing individuals to listed substances without providing a clear and reasonable warning.

Since enactment, Proposition 65 has been the reason for reformulation of many consumer products to eliminate traces of elements and compounds covered by Proposition 65, as well as other significant changes to reduce exposures such as toxic air emissions. In some cases consumer products have been relabeled to show specific toxic ingredients, but reformulation has been far more common, and in general has occurred nationwide rather than only in California.

An official list of substances covered by Proposition 65 is maintained and made publicly available. Chemicals are added to or removed from the official list based on California's analysis of current scientific information. All substances listed show their known risk factors, a unique CAS chemical classification number, the date they were listed, and, if so, whether they have been delisted.

Proposition 65 remains politically controversial even after 25 years, in large part because, in effect, it puts the burden of proof on business instead of government to make a key scientific determination about safety levels for specific toxic chemicals that the businesses are knowingly exposing members of the public to According to the California Environmental Protection Agency, "Proposition 65 has... increased public awareness about the adverse effects of exposures to listed chemicals.... [and] provided an incentive for manufacturers to remove listed chemicals from their products.... Although Proposition 65 has benefited Californians, it has come at a cost for companies doing business in the state."^[4] The law has also been criticized for the proliferation of "bounty hunter" lawsuits. Attorneys have collected more than two-thirds of the money paid by businesses to settle Proposition 65 lawsuits since 2000.

Proposition 65's effectiveness also remains controversial, with some pointing out the lack of any studies suggesting a decrease in cancer rates in the state.

 Warning label

The following warning language is standard on products sold in California if they contain chemicals on the Proposition 65 list and the amount of exposure caused by the product is not within defined safety limits.

    WARNING: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.

The wording can be changed as necessary, so long as it communicates that the chemical in question is known to the state to cause cancer, or birth defects or other reproductive harm. For exposures from other sources, such as car exhaust in a parking garage, a standard sign might read: "This area contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, or birth defects or other reproductive harm".
Some businesses in the state post similar notices on their premises, even when they have not evaluated the actual level of risk from a listed chemical they know is present. Warning signs are often posted at gas stations, hardware suppliers, grocery stores, drug stores, medical facilities, and many other businesses. Government agencies, parking garages, hotels, apartment complexes, retail stores, banks, and restaurants also post warning signs because of the possibility of hazardous chemicals being present in everyday items or the nearby environment. Some large businesses, such as utility companies, mail a Prop 65 notice to all customers each year to warn them of dangerous substances like natural gas or the sand used in sandblasting.

There is no penalty for posting an unnecessary warning sign.  Because of the overuse of the vague warning, the ubiquitous signs ultimately communicate very little information to the end user. This problem has been recognized by California courts, advocates, and businesses.

Abuse

Political controversy over the law, including industry attempts to have it preempted by federal law, have died down. However, enforcement actions remain controversial. Most of the Proposition 65 complaints are filed on behalf of straw man plaintiffs by private attorneys, some of whose businesses are built entirely on filing Proposition 65 lawsuits.

Proposition 65 has also been criticized because the majority of settlement money collected from businesses has been used to pay plaintiffs' attorney fees. Businesses paid over $14.58 million in attorney fees and costs in 2012, 71% of all settlement money paid.

Labeling requirements conceded the reality that listing and classifying substances did not help the consumer if the contents of a purchase were unknown. At the same time, there were no other labeling requirements to support the proposition. Industry critics and corporate defense lawyers charge that Proposition 65 is "a clever and irritating mechanism used by litigious NGOs and others to publicly spank politically incorrect opponents ranging from the American gun industry to seafood retailers, etc."

In addition, because the law allows private citizens to sue and collect damages from any business violating the law, there have been cases of lawyers and law firms using Proposition 65 to force monetary settlements out of California businesses. The Attorney General's office has cited several instances of settlements where plaintiff attorneys received significant awards without providing for environmental benefit to the people of California, resulting in the requirement of the Attorney General's approval of pre-trial Proposition 65 settlements. The Attorney General also objected to efforts in settlements between private parties to pre-empt the Attorney General's right and duty to protect the public interest against future violations.

If you would like to visit the Wikipedia site for more information, please copy and paste this link in your browser: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_65_(1986)

Support Wikipedia's free information, we do annually!

 You could also visit the California OEHHA site for more information and the list of over 800 chemicals at: http://www.oehha.ca.gov/prop65/background/p65plain.html