The past month has been crazy with food and food-related news. I'll tackle two here, but the rest are just as absurd. On 30 December, TV2.dk wrote that the Rule of 5 can reveal dangerous food
Just a few quotes from the article:
A good rule is to look at whether there are more or fewer than five ingredients. If there are fewer, the product is fine. But if there are more than five, you should go in and read if there's anything you don't understand," says Anne Tjønneland.
What's not good, however, are fizzy drinks and crisps. Sweets in general shouldn't be eaten either. The same goes for long-life ready meals.
Perhaps more surprisingly, veggie products, including certain types of plant-based drinks, also get a thumbs up from some researchers.
In the 1970s, product declarations began to be widely used on many food packaging. Since then, the concept of e-numbers came into use. The latter describes additives that are so difficult to explain that they have their own coding language, i.e. an E followed by a numerical code.
What's not good, however, are fizzy drinks and crisps. Sweets in general shouldn't be eaten either. The same goes for long-life ready meals.
Perhaps more surprisingly, veggie products, including certain types of plant-based drinks, also get a thumbs up from some researchers.
In the 1970s, product declarations began to be widely used on many food packaging. Since then, the concept of e-numbers came into use. The latter describes additives that are so difficult to explain that they have their own coding language, i.e. an E followed by a numerical code.
I have a few comments on this:
- The Rule of 5:
If there are fewer than 5 ingredients, the product is OK - but chips are not OK. Strange, isn't it? Most crisps consist of potatoes, sunflower oil and salt. 3 ingredients, none of them with weird names.
Many questionable sausages and the like consist of meat, emulsifier, water and spices.
- Vegan goods:
They are deeply surprised that some vegan products are ultra-processed. Pretty much all of them are, and I've been saying this for a long time.
- E numbers:
They state that: "The latter [i.e. E numbers] describe additives that are so difficult to explain that they have their own coding language, i.e. an E and a number code after it."
This is totally wrong. There are plenty of E numbers that cover ordinary, well-known substances. The E numbers are a standardisation, the E stands for Europe, and the list was introduced by the EU so that we can all recognise the substances regardless of where the product is manufactured. (Wikipedia tells us: E numbers, short for Europe numbers, are codes for substances used as food additives, including those found naturally in many foods, such as vitamin C, for use within the European Union)
The common ones I can think of are E330 = citric acid, E300 = vitamin C, E440 = pectin, E553 = talc and E901 = beeswax.
I'm certainly just as uncomfortable - or maybe even more so - with glucose-fructose syrup or hydrolysed vegetable protein, for example, which have no E numbers.
And I wonder how many people are offended by carob, carrageenan, sorbitol, monosodiumglutamate, and many others where you're allowed to write the common name instead of their E numbers (E410, E407, E420 and E621 respectively)?
I think you can go completely wrong with these rules. For example, try reading the ingredients of Mou organic meatballs: Pork and beef (60%), water, EGG WHITE, onion, WHEAT FLOUR, potato flour, breadcrumbs (WHEAT FLOUR, salt, yeast), salt, beef fat, white pepper.
A total of 11 ingredients! But not one I don't have or couldn't easily make at home in my own kitchen - and here we are at what I believe is a much better rule: COULD I DO THIS MYSELF?
Could I chop the meat, mix it with salt, add water, egg whites, onions, flour, breadcrumbs (which I could make myself), salt, pepper and fat and then cook the buns in salt water? Yes, I could do that. So it's OK.
Let's try the vegan version:
Beyond Meat meatballs, ingredients: Water, pea protein* (14%), rapeseed oil, coconut oil, flavourings, smoke flavour, rice protein, dried yeast, stabiliser (methyl cellulose), potato starch, salt, potassium salt, spices, herbs in variable proportion 0.5% (Parsley, rosemary, sage, basil and oregano), apple extract, garlic powder, corn vinegar, concentrated lemon juice, onion powder, pomegranate extract, emulsifier (sunflower lecithin), colour (beetroot red), maltodextrin, carrot powder.
*Peas are legumes. People with severe allergies to legumes such as peanuts should be cautious when introducing pea protein into their diet due to the risk of pea allergy (MotherOwl adds: or intolerances, peas are high FODMAP; as are apples, onions, garlic, and I think pomegranates).
There are a lot of ingredients - 24 in fact - of which Flavourings is in fourth place, and there are several where I think... how the heck do I do this?
Pea protein ... how do I get the protein out of the peas? Ditto with rice protein and what about sunflower lecithin?
Methyl cellulose and potassium salt... (E461 and E508 that is). COULD I DO THIS MYSELF? No, I couldn't. NOT OK
I'm happy to repeat myself from a long time ago:
What if instead of all kinds of crazy diets we stopped eating cheap rubbish and ate a little less, but of a decent quality, and only ate things we could reproduce in our own kitchen - things that my grandmother would also understand. I think the most important question to ask is:
COULD I DO THIS MYSELF?
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The other news is about a week old, here we read -- also from TV2news:
Fishmonger thrown out of board for statement about fish from aquaculture
According to the owner of a fish shop in Aarhus, salmon from aquaculture is actually not suitable for human consumption. Take a look at this:
Jakob Clausen from Denmark's oldest fish shop is no longer part of the board of the Danish Fishmongers' Association.
He has been kicked out of the trade organisation's board because he announced on Tuesday that he will no longer sell salmon from aquaculture in his shop.
He has been kicked out of the trade organisation's board because he announced on Tuesday that he will no longer sell salmon from aquaculture in his shop.
Yes, if someone tells the truth, you should just throw them out of the 'good' company. I hope the truthful and brave fishmonger continues as he started, and if I lived in Aarhus (in Jutland, so I won't just go there), all my future fish purchases would be made in that shop!
According to the article, Lars Poulsen, head of the secretariat of the Danish Fishmongers' Association, believes that aquaculture is a natural part of the fishing industry and that customers can choose which fish they buy.
Fine, then just note on the signs which fish are from aquaculture, so we can choose! This one is for packaged fish in the supermarket - but at the fishmonger... what do we do there when it's not on the signs?
River asks: If things are not written on the signs you could ask the staff where the foods have come from and if they don't know, then maybe don't buy.
SvarSletI'm curious about the "Aromas" in the first story, how do they add that and would it be the herbs which are the fragrant parts?
In the past I often tried a packaged or frozen food, then tried to replicate it myself in my kitchen from fresh ingredients and usually it turned out well.
The staff is often young sellers, who do not know the first thing about what they sell; this is not an exclusive fishmongers' thing, but a general trend. So, yes I can ask, but mostly won't get an answer or make them look for the information forever, holding up the queues; same as with allergens elsewhere.
SletThe "Aromas" added are probably substances extracted from natural plants and herbs, not the herbs as such. Maybe even chemically made aromas - I do not think they are healthy, whereas spices normally are.
You used "my" Could I do this rule :) Yes we can, normally with less aesthetically pleasing, but more tasty results.
Your stance makes a heap of sense to me. I do try and mostly succeed to eat minimally processed food. I am a vegetarian but do not buy 'vegie' meat substitutes.
SvarSlet