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Spices are primarily used as food flavoring. They are also used to perfume cosmetics and incense. At various periods, many spices have been believed to have medicinal value. Finally, since they are expensive, rare, and exotic commodities, their conspicuous consumption has often been a symbol of wealth and social class.It is often claimed that spices were used either as food preservatives or to mask the taste of spoiled meat, especially in the Middle Ages.[10][11] This is false.[12][13][14] In fact, spices are rather ineffective as preservatives as compared to salting, smoking, pickling, or drying, and are ineffective in covering the taste of spoiled meat.[10] Moreover, spices have always been comparatively expensive: in 15th century Oxford, a whole pig cost about the same as a pound of the cheapest spice, pepper.