CELL FOOD
What’s the difference between Fresh foods and the Preserved counterparts? By Charlotte Meschede - Nutritionist
We all like fresh food, but with the fast pace of life, especially in urban areas, there isn’t always time to shop daily and let’s face it, fresh foods don’t last, so in the interest of not wasting food, many of us will opt for the preserved option. Does preservation ever preserve nutrients as well as shelf life? Let us look at a few examples and see what the nutrient losses are! Fresh versus Preserved Food
Preservation or enhancing the shelf life of fresh food usually involves one of the following processes: • Canning (with added sugar, salt or oil) • Freezing • Drying whole foods or dehydrating the fresh juices of the specific food into powder As far as canning food is concerned, there are actually 2 processes that contribute to the preservation of the product. One is temperature, as the food is heated to high temperatures to kill any microbes that may be present and the second one is either sugar, salt (brine) or oil, all of which have anti-microbial effects as they prevent oxidation (through preventing exposure to oxygen) and of course bacterial and microbial invasion. Clearly, adding sugar as is common with fruit products, increases the sugar content and makes these foods undesirable to use on a daily basis and definitely will deplete the nutrient content, especially with regard to temperature-sensitive nutrients like vitamin C and the B complex. For 14
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example, the calorie and sugar content of 1x fresh peach versus 1 x canned peach are as follows: •
1 x fresh peach = 50 Calories and 15 grams sugar
•
1 x canned peach = 76 calories and 20 grams sugar
Freezing of fresh foods is a popular form of food preservation because the products do not spoil so easily and generally maintain their nutrient content, depending on how long they remain frozen and whether the food was cooked before freezing. If the latter is the case, then it would be the cooking process that causes nutrient loss, not the freezing process. However, the disadvantage is that some people do not have access to either electricity or have freezers, making this option not feasible. Dehydration of food is a popular method of preservation and will also preserve the nutritive value of the food, as long as high temperatures are not used in the drying process. The only negative aspect of dried food, and in particular of fruit and meat, is that
