Are all processed foods bad for you? Sure there are some that you should probably stay away from but there are many healthy options that provide nutritional and other great benefits. What are these you ask? Below I discuss six benefits using the acronym SNACKS.
Safety
Processing helps to improve food safety by reducing natural or other heat-sensitive toxins that may be present. Dangerous microorganisms such as bacteria are also killed or controlled to safe levels by processing. This can be achieved by techniques such as heating, freezing, acidification (adding acid), high-pressure processing, and irradiation. Without these technologies, there would be a greater risk for foodborne illnesses and deaths. In the US today there are at least 3000 deaths per year due to foodborne illnesses. Can you imagine what that number would be without the advances that we now have in food processing technology?
Nutrition
The common perception is that food processing makes foods less nutritious. In some cases, this may be true. Canning for example will cause leaching and loss of vitamins in the cooking water. Heat may destroy some heat-sensitive vitamins such as vitamins C and B. However, cooking your food at home will result in perhaps the same amount of nutrient loss as well. Often not spoken about is the fact that processing can also improve nutritional quality. For example, heat processing may destroy or reduce mineral-binding anti-nutrients such as phytic acid making essential minerals more readily available for digestion. Heat processing also transforms food components like proteins in raw meat and starch in plants, converting them into more digestible forms.
Availability
Food processing allows foods that would be otherwise unavailable to become accessible. For example tropical fruits unavailable in temperate regions of the United States can be processed, preserved, packaged and transported to nearby groceries. Failing that, customers can order almost any pre-packaged and shelf-stable food item on the internet and have it delivered right to their door.
Convenience
Without the convenience of food processing we would pretty much spend almost all our time hunting and gathering food to survive with little time for anything else. Imagine that you wanted to make bread. You would have to grind the wheat yourself, sieve it to get the flour, make or tediously gather all the other ingredients and bake it on your own. Getting meat would requiring hunting, slaughtering and preparing it yourself. Thanks to the convenience of food processing, someone else does all that hard work so we can spend time on other important things we would rather do.
Keeping Quality
Food processing helps to improve keeping quality. For example, techniques like canning, salting, syruping, acidification and drying can reduce or prevent the growth of harmful microorganisms. Preservatives such as mold inhibitors and dough conditioners work to reduce mold growth and staling respectively. Without these advantages, we would be running back to the grocery almost every day to replenish our food stock. Luckily with the added shelf-life value that we get from many processed foods, we can buy in bulk, store them and rest assured that they will not go bad overnight.
Sensory Attributes
Perhaps this is one of the most notable improvements due to processing. Sensory attributes such as taste, flavor, color, texture and appearance are often significantly improved. This may be caused from the destruction of off-flavors naturally present, or the formation of new flavor compounds during its processing. For example the application of heat can create caramelized, smoked and other flavors. Furthermore, the introduction of and combination of new ingredients is food formulation plays an important role in transforming otherwise bland, tasteless or off-putting foods to delectable delights.
