Today I saw a Star Market email introducing two lines of natural (preservative free) and organic products.  I’m not going to discuss the organics product line here as I support having more organic products (mostly because it contributes to a more sustainable food system) and the conversation about organic standards and research is a big one.  I’m tackling the discussion of preservatives and additives.

Now bear with me. I recently made some simple syrup and in my search for the best method, I read about sugar ratios and shelf life.  I ended up using the higher ratio of sugar to water to get a longer lasting syrup.  Sugar is a preservative in its own right. The definition of preservative according to the Oxford dictionary is this: “A substance used to preserve foodstuffs, wood, or other materials against decay.”

Americans eat sugar in ridiculous amounts, so we love this preservative and I take some  issue with Star Market’s language.  Star Market is an example, but but certainly not the only party guilty of over generalizing preservatives.  Sugar and salt are certainly not preservatives this supermarket chains is targeting, but the language is overly simplified.  …”real food made without preservatives, free of artificial colors and artificial flavors…”  In addition to sugar, salt and vinegar (had a pickle lately?) are common preservatives.  Consider that in home refrigeration has only been around for about a century, and it would seem that we need a new categorization of preservatives to help inform consumers without overgeneralizing all preservatives as harmful.  Here are some other common preservatives deemed extremely low risk (nothing is risk-free) or that only cause adverse (allergic) reactions in a very small percentage of the population.

Consumers tend to scrutinize ingredients with multi-syllabic names names more than others, but this isn’t justified.  Perhaps food producers should get more creative and come up with more easily recognizable/pronounceable names for common preservatives to put the consumer at ease.  I’ve heard the advice that you should only buy food with ingredients you can pronounce, but that’s a flawed logic.  When it comes to eating well, decisions should be made for the individual not the group as a whole, though this is no easy task.  US government agencies are hopefully looking out for the group, though is is an admittedly flawed system. Some preservatives are definitely harmful and relatively unnecessary, but let’s try to take a closer look at the ingredients we demonize.

“Food preservation traditionally has three goals: the preservation of nutritional characteristics, the preservation of appearance, and a prolongation of the time that the food can be stored.”

Also understand that some foods wouldn’t be available in the forms we love so much without preservatives, additives, and other transformative ingredients.  For more and quite fascinating information, check out this book, Ingredients: A Visual Exploration of 75 Additives & 25 Food Products, by Dwight Eschliman and Steve Ettlinger.  NPR provided some great coverage of this book, and the viewpoints of the authors.