7 Facts About Antioxidants & Food Preservation

 

A few years ago, I never gave a second thought to the food that my family eats or how it was made. I just went to the grocery store, bought what we wanted, cooked it and ate it. It was as simple as that. But now that I’ve been blogging for 6 years and I spend so much time on social media, I can’t help but read a lot of the things that people post to their social channels and to their blogs. There is a lot of information out there and sometimes, I’m really just not sure what to believe.

I’ve always wanted to know more about our food, so when I was presented with the opportunity to join a discussion panel with ConAgra Foods, I was definitely interested in learning more. Last week, I participated in a virtual briefing with the following individuals on behalf of ConAgra Foods:
–Lanie Friedman
Director, Communications & External Relations at ConAgra Foods
–Kelly Magurany, M.Sc., DABT
Principal Research Scientists- Toxicology  Food Protection and Regulatory Affairs at ConAgra Foods
–Kristi Reimers, RD, PhD, Nutrition
Director of Nutrition in Research & Innovations at ConAgra Foods

I learned a lot of things that I never knew before and picked some of the most interesting facts to share with you. You can read stories from other bloggers who participated in the briefing by following the #AntioxidantFacts hashtag as well. The video below also shares some great information.

We preserve our food for taste, freshness, safety, natural color preservation and food waste reduction. Food preservation can be doe through caning, freezing and adding ingredients to help preserve them. There are antioxidants in our food to help protect oils from rancidity damage and in our bodies to help protect our cells. Here’s more on antioxidants:

Antioxidants in the Body

• We have many antioxidants that are naturally produced in our body every day, such as after exercise; these antioxidants help fend off environmental toxins and stress on the body
• Our bodies carefully control the amount of antioxidants in our cells; we can get very sick if the normal level of antioxidants in our body becomes too low
• Some of our most important vitamins, such as vitamin E and vitamin C, are used in our body as antioxidants

Body benefits of antioxidants:
Slow the aging process
Boost your body’s natural defense system
Help combat heart disease, cancer and other diseases

Antioxidants in Food

• Like the vitamins in your body, certain foods contain natural antioxidants, such as polyphenols; some foods may also contain man made antioxidants
• When you open a box of food, the exposure to air can cause certain ingredients that are common in our food, like fats and oils, to spoil; the unpleasant odors and flavors that follow are sometimes called rancidity

Food benefits of antioxidants:
Prevent food from becoming rancid (spoiling), and therefore wasted
Preserve food’s flavors
Help preserve natural color in food

Natural antioxidants found in food are Alpha-tocopherol (aka Vitamin E), Ascorbic Acid (aka Vitamin C) and Citric Acid. There are also some mad made antioxidants in our food, which are:

• BHT: A tasteless, colorless man made antioxidant is used to help maintain freshness in grain-based foods like crackers and cookies
• TBHQ: A tasteless, colorless man made antioxidant used commonly to keep vegetable oils and other packaged foods fresh

More information from the Q&A

What
do you think the most common misconception is among consumers
regarding preservatives in foods?

• A
  misconception I most commonly see is that preservatives are
  unnecessary and harmful to your health. When in fact, preservatives
  such as antioxidants are really necessary to reduce off-taste and
  odors in foods caused by breakdown of cells, fats and oils.

Is
there anything new in the process [of preserving] that has come to
the table recently or are you still using things that have been
around for quite some time?

• Generally,
  the compounds we typically use like BHT and TBHQ have been used for
  a long time. I would say that TBHQ is a newer version in relation to
  BHT, but it has been used for a long time as well.
• I
  think food choices change over the years. I think the food maker
  definitely sees our lines of food evolving based on what people
  want, but the method of preserving food seems kind of consistent
  because they’re tried and true. Like Kelly said, there’s been a
  lot of steps taken to make sure that they’re safe and they’re
  going to deliver the flavors that people want. Food choice change,
  but because all approved methods are so safe, we chose the best
  method for our food that we can whether it’s a natural or
  synthetic antioxidant.

Are
natural antioxidants modified to use in foods they don’t come
naturally in?

• Natural
  antioxidants are often extracted from the food products, but they’re
  also synthetically produced. There is actually no difference
  chemically in a naturally produced antioxidant and one that’s
  developed by man-made techniques. They’re often developed in
  man-made ways because it’s a more cost-effective way and actually
  protects our food supply. So although humans may make an antioxidant
  from a natural compound, they can also synthesize them, but they’re
  exactly the same. There is no difference.

How
do you best explain the difference between man-made and natural
antioxidants to people who do not understand?

• For
  my personal view as a mom and a scientist, I explain it to my family
  as synthetic antioxidants or man-made antioxidants are really the
  same function as a natural antioxidant. The science that’s
  available to support these man-made compounds are much more robust,
  in fact, and we spend a lot of time looking at the science and
  making sure these things are safe. So when we think about natural
  there’s an automatic tendency to assume safety, but that’s not
  always the case. We spend a lot of time looking at both. So when I
  explain it to my family, I explain that the functions are the same
  and they have exactly the same benefits. As an employee at ConAgra
  Foods, I can say that we do use both of these types of compounds.
• Kristi:
  In a more general sense beyond antioxidants, when I’m trying to
  explain the safety of ingredients I can use an analogy. And that is
  that the amount of these ingredients in our diets is like the amount
  of water in a puddle. And you can say well, water causes drowning,
  well that’s true, but it’s not going to cause drowning if you’re
  standing in a puddle. Now it might cause drowning if you’re in a
  river that’s going crazy, you can’t swim, the water is really
  cold and deep, then water imposes a risk. A lot of times the news
  that we read about ingredients that might be negative is the result
  of tests that are more analogous to standing in a river than
  standing in a puddle. So it’s important for us all to recognize
  that ingredients have been tested thoroughly and they are very safe
  consumed in the amounts that we consume in our diets. I think it’s
  important for the bloggers to understand that big words, scary words
  they’re just chemicals and foods are made of chemicals. And even
  blueberries. If we were to look at the ingredients in blueberries
  they would seem very intimidating, but in fact they’re just there
  natural antioxidants and other nutrients in plants that make them
  healthy.