Saturday, March 17, 2012

Types of packaging method affecting our food quality - Info

These piece of infomation is extracted from Dynamicgreen.com.

Consumer right - buy quality food from reputatable producer..

1. Cold Pasteurization / Irradiation Symbol
Beware produce that is cold pasteurized /  irradiated as indicated by the radura logo.  These foods do not spoil, seeds do not sprout and there is no question that the organics elements of the food have been severely compromised.  To make matters worse, many  irradiated foods exist in our diets today.  The problem is that irradiation must only be shown on first level foods.  Any second level foods (preparations of more than one food) can contain 100% irradiated ingredients and this does not need to be indicated on the label.

2. Heat Pasteurized
Aseptic folded top packages are used for liquids.  Foods in these containers are pasteurized.  This means they are heat treated in the interest of destroying microbes.  While this makes them sanitary, it also removes the living, volatile organics which are damaged above 108F.

3. Cooked / Dried
Boxed food have normally been baked, cooked or heat dried to remove moisture content.  This prevents futher decomposition in the package; however, because the organic elements have been destroyed during the process, only the non-organics remain.

4. Blast Furnace Treated
Powdered foods are heat treated or flashed by blast furnaces at approximately 900F.  Later, they are then put through a device called a hammer mill.  The combination of heat and oxidation destroys all but the mineral content of these products.

5. Cooking & Blanching
Canned products are fully cooked or blanched (which means dipped in hot liquids) and then canned.  The canning prevents oxidation of the food and allows it to combine with moisture without spoiling; however, most of the organics have already been destroyed prior to the seal being made.

How Foods Are Compromised In The Pursuit Of Shelf Life
Foods are comprised of two types of elements:  i) volatile organics (living elements); and ii) non-volatile non-organics (non-living elements such as minerals)

When companies look to produce foods with a shelf life, they focus on controlling the "volatile organics".  This is the portion of the food that will decay and cause it to spoil.  It is also the living part of the food, contains thousands of nutrients and is the portion that scientifically, we know the least about.  In many cases, control is achieved by destroying the living organic elements of the food.  If you are pursuing nutrition from living foods you need to be careful.  Fortunately, it is easy as just the packaging alone will provide some indication as to whether or not the food it contains has been compromised.  Here are some of the packages you should know about:

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