What Is Food Processing??

What Is Food Processing ????

Processed Foods Aren't Just What You Pick Up At A Take Away.

The first image that comes to mind for most of us when they hear the term "processed food" is one of those rank soggy wrapped burgers and a box of lukewarm fat drenched fries served over a counter at a fast food joint.

But the truth is, most of the food we have is processed.

What Exactly Is Processed Food Anyway?

If it's boxed, bagged, canned or jarred and has a list of ingredients on the label, it's processed. Methods used to process foods include:

• Canning

• Freezing

• Refrigeration

• Dehydration

• Aseptic Processing

Processed foods have been altered from their natural state for the "safety" of mankind and the convenience of the human race.

Why Process food?

Processed foods are really just more convenient - that's what it basically comes down to!!!! Our lives are faster, we are just getting lazier and we just don’t seem to have any time. We are like the white rabbit in Alice in wonderland, ‘I’m late, I’m late for a very important date!!’ Although I’m not always sure what that date might be??  So it's much easier to bake a cake by opening up a box, pouring out a dry mix, and adding an egg and some oil than starting from scratch.  Cooking now is becoming a chore. Why spend hours preparing food when we can chuck it in the microwave and in three minutes have Chicken Ding!!!  What about one of those delicious meals in a pot, with all that nutritious goodness in every mouthful?

Having chicken, ham and mushroom surprise with extra vegetables in 1 minute after pouring hot water into a carton, makes your prep time for lunch a breeze.

But convenience isn't the only thing you get when you eat processed foods. There's a whole list of ingredients that manufacturers add too.  Just to make sure you get the most from your food.

• Colouring – Who doesn’t want to eat food with that special neon glow??

• Stabilizers – You don’t want watery gravy!!

• Emulsifiers - Who says oil and water can't mix?

• Bleaching - Let's disinfect and deodorize the food so it doesn’t smell rancid after the processing.

• Texturize - Nothing's worse than soggy cereal...

• Softeners - It's as if the ice cream was churned twice

• Preservatives - What if you want to eat that cupcake 6 years from now?

• Sweeteners - Sugar is sweet but saccharin and aspartame is sweeter how sickly can we make it.

• Hide Odors - Do you really want to smell the fish paste in your instant Pad Thai?

• Flavourings - Nothing like having the sweet taste of fruit all year round when the food hasn’t seen a fruit, ever!!

  How kind of the manufacturers to considered the consumer at every stage of the processing.

  They’ll even turn your body into the periodic table with all the chemicals!!!

  How thoughtful!!!!