'Processed' foods...

[Externet]

What is the intended meaning for 'processed foods' from the point of view of a food manufacturing factory and from the point of view of dietists/nutritionists, and perception from the general public ?

 

Is boiling/frying something processing ?

Is washing/chopping something processing ?

Is condimenting processing ?

Is refrigerating/freezing something processing ?

Is packing/transporting something processing ?

 

What are not 'processed' foods ?

An unwashed apple picked from a tree ?

Raw chicken meat, with feathers and all ?

Sea salt picked from a dry brine pond ?

Creek/well water ?

 

 

 

 

[John Cuthber]

Is eating a process?

[MonDie]

I stopped using my food processor after learning of the unhealthfulness of processed foods.

[StringJunky]

The UK NHS says "The term 'processed food' applies to any food that has been altered from its natural state in some way, either for safety reasons or convenience."

 

I think the concerns mainly pertain to restricting the regular consumption of convenience foods which may contain less than desirable levels of salt, sugar, fats, and preservatives etc.

[Phi for All]

I think the concerns mainly pertain to restricting the regular consumption of convenience foods which may contain less than desirable levels of salt, sugar, fats, and preservatives etc.

 

This is my take as well. Sure, if you chop up an onion you've just "processed" it, but the mainstream concerns are for what happens when a little of that onion is mixed with onion powder and other ingredients, then cooked in a way that allows the mixture to be squirted into a pre-made crust, frozen, and sold as a pot pie (or other convenient meal).

 

Nutritional benefits are clearly marked on most processed foods, so that must not matter as much to most consumers as the other main concerns, cost, convenience, and taste. Processed foods cost more in the long run than preparing meals from scratch, but save some time and a lot of effort.

 

Anecdotally, I hear good and bad things about the taste of processed foods, ranging from delicious to disgusting. It would seem to me that the processing would be more likely to develop a great tasting meal, but the concerns over cost, distribution, shelf-life and other supply-side economics may play a bigger part.

 

I wonder if taste can be used at all as a metric for processed foods. With many of them, people either love them or hate them. Hot Pockets come to mind.

 

To me, the real objection to convenience foods is how many concessions am I making to my health by accepting this easy answer? Is this manufacturer meeting the bare minimum federal standards required to call what they're selling me "food", and placing more importance on logistics than my longevity?

[Externet]

I wonder if taste can be used at all as a metric for processed foods. With many of them, people either love them or hate them. Hot Pockets come to mind.

Thanks.

Sick of being bombarded with the 'anti-processed' foods, when the pushers do not even define nor know what 'processed' may imply.

 

Taste in food as a metric would change the whole picture; food is nutrition for the body and too few care for the nourishment.

A well condimented and fancily presented turd will sell with no problem these days if the price is pumped high enough on a snobbish ambiance place.

 

A granny mixing flour and water; putting on some pieces of cheese and sauce, vegetables and meats to the oven is the same 'process' the pizza places do. But buying from a vendor constitutes a no-no for nutritionists. No sense or yes ?

As a guest in a little town in Italy, having a home-made pizza a gramma made... Is it that much different from buying it at PizzaHut ?

As useful food, not as flavor pleasure for one or the other.

What about nutritional value of both ?

What about 'unhealthyness' of both ?

[MonDie]

I've never seen food advertised as non-processed in the USA.

 

Saying that processed is unhealthy may be a blanket statement, but blankets are useful in the absence of case-specific details.

[Dekan]

If you couldn't get processed foods from a supermarket, what would you do?

Grow your own wheat in your back-garden, thresh it, winnow it, and laboriously grind it with a millstone into flour, then use a wood-fuelled oven to bake it into bread?

 

That's a lot of hard work. Who really wants to do that? In past ages, we had no choice - we had to do it.

But nowadays, with modern civilisation and Science, we can just drive our car to the supermarket, pick a sliced-loaf from the shelf, and take it home.

 

Some people don't appreciate how lucky they are, to be living in the 21st century.

[MonDie]

If you couldn't get processed foods from a supermarket, what would you do?

Grow your own wheat in your back-garden, thresh it, winnow it, and laboriously grind it with a millstone into flour, then use a wood-fuelled oven to bake it into bread?

 

I would ingest the raw whole grains for their precious fiber and chitin.

[Dekan]

 

I would ingest the raw whole grains for their precious fiber and chitin

 

Would you really? They'd be quite indigestible. Admit it - you buy loaves of sliced white bread from Walmart. And so you should, as a citizen of 21st century America. Don't be ashamed!

[Phi for All]

If you couldn't get processed foods from a supermarket, what would you do?

Grow your own wheat in your back-garden, thresh it, winnow it, and laboriously grind it with a millstone into flour, then use a wood-fuelled oven to bake it into bread?

 

That's a lot of hard work. Who really wants to do that? In past ages, we had no choice - we had to do it.

But nowadays, with modern civilisation and Science, we can just drive our car to the supermarket, pick a sliced-loaf from the shelf, and take it home.

 

Some people don't appreciate how lucky they are, to be living in the 21st century.

 

False dilemma. There's a middle ground option, where you buy flour and yeast from the supermarket, then use your own water, work, oven, time, and knife to make a sliced loaf. There are even flours that aren't as heavily processed as the ones used in Walmart white bread.

[StringJunky]

 

False dilemma. There's a middle ground option, where you buy flour and yeast from the supermarket, then use your own water, work, oven, time, and knife to make a sliced loaf. There are even flours that aren't as heavily processed as the ones used in Walmart white bread.

And you can control amounts or omit ingredients

[Dekan]

Well, I'd rather omit all the work-creating ingredients and just buy the hygienically-packed supermarket bread. It's much easier.

I mean, if you want some beef, do you go out and prowl anxiously around the countryside looking for a cow, so you can attempt to attack it, and stab or bludgeon it to death?

 

That's what our Stone-Age ancestors had to do. Whereas these days, we just calmly open a tin of corned beef from the supermarket.

Seems like a wonderful advance to me. But then, some people never appreciate what they've got.

[Phi for All]

Well, I'd rather omit all the work-creating ingredients and just buy the hygienically-packed supermarket bread. It's much easier.

It certainly is easier.

 

I don't think hygiene was in question.

 

It's the ingredients like azodicarbonamide, used to make processing the bread dough easier for large scale manufacturing, that poses health risks you wouldn't face if you made your own bread.

 

I mean, if you want some beef, do you go out and prowl anxiously around the countryside looking for a cow, so you can attempt to attack it, and stab or bludgeon it to death?

 

That's what our Stone-Age ancestors had to do. Whereas these days, we just calmly open a tin of corned beef from the supermarket.

 

Again, false dilemma. There's a middle ground between hunting live animals and eating tinned meat that your argument is ignoring.

 

[Danijel Gorupec]

Without pretending that I can define 'processed food', I can only say how I understand it: a food that cannot be made by processes and ingredients that are used or found in an ordinary, traditional home kitchen. That is, by 'processed' I understand 'industrially processed'... This is a vague 'definition', but maybe someone can find it helpful.

[John Cuthber]

 

I would ingest the raw whole grains for their precious fiber and chitin.

Do you think that grain contains chitin or are you planning to eat the insects that are in there too?

[MonDie]

Do you think that grain contains chitin or are you planning to eat the insects that are in there too?

 

More fitting for a veganism thread.

http://www.academicjournals.org/article/article1379770665_Banjo%20et%20al.pdf

Edited November 15, 2014 by MonDie

[nobox]

I think there is a link between eating excessive processed food and cancer incidence. The definition of processed food is not rigid and should be defined as one wishes. It is similar to the way we define obscenity.

[MonDie]

Obscenity is a matter of opinion. That is, the ambiguity in the definition is due to differences in personal tastes. "Processed" should be more objective since it's purportedly describing the physical.

Edited January 16, 2015 by MonDie

[John Cuthber]

Does washing the dust off food count as processing?

It's a physical process.

If it does, then do we eat any non processed food?

 

So, it's clearly a matter of opinion/ definition.

[MonDie]

I think this is what most people have in mind.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convenience_food

 

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Returning Jan 23

[John Cuthber]

It's still a problem of definition.

Bananas are very convenient, but scarcely processed.

Essentially, what it comes down to is that some foods, especially,if consumed in excess, are bad for you- though probably less so than starving to death.

[nobox]

Language fools people all the time. 'Processed' is such a thing that everyone knows what it means but no one can agree totally/exactly what others define. Coincidentally this is also what caused a lot of human conflicts. Because we are fooled and fail to realize it at a mass scale.

Can we ban the ambiguous languages? I wish but unlikely. The only thing we can do is stop arguing about it. hahaha.

[MonDie]

 

 

Returning Jan 23

So much for that.

 

It's still a problem of definition.

Bananas are very convenient, but scarcely processed.

Essentially, what it comes down to is that some foods, especially,if consumed in excess, are bad for you- though probably less so than starving to death.

 

Bananas aren't made convenient artificially. The tree prepared the banana for you rather than a factory.

[John Cuthber]

 

Bananas aren't made convenient artificially. The tree prepared the banana for you rather than a factory.

 

Did you think there might be someone here who didn't know that?