Organic vs. Industrial Food

Organic vs. industrial food

Lonnie A. Wilson

Composition 135

Professor Rathi Krishnan

Organic foods, although stereotypically known for having a bland taste or having no taste have been shown to improve one's quality of life be decreasing some health risk such as cancer or heart disease. If you haven’t realized it, organic fruits and vegetables taste better, and the flavor is crispier. The health consequences of genetically modified food, when examined closely, will convince you to change your eating habits.

The shelf life of food depends on four main factors: formulation, processing, packaging and storage. Change any one of these conditions and you can change the shelf life for better or worse. Shelf life has many attributes: bacterial control, color stability, yeast and mold inhibition, flavor stability, textural stability and aroma stability. The appearance of shelf-life problems can be wide, as well, including oxidative browning, oxidation of flavor compounds, or liquescence.

To increase the shelf life of more unstable foods, such as low-sugar jam, low-salt condiments, low-oil salad dressings, prepared fresh produce and deli meats, food companies may take steps to reduce bacterial load from ingredients before they process the final food. To grow, thrive and survive, microbes need a friendly environment; this usually includes moisture. Lowering moisture creates a hostile environment for bacteria by decreasing the available medium for them to grow in. There are a number of new ingredients to help regulate water activity in foods with a reduced fat phase. “ Generally, the water activity of a minimally processed food needs to be about 0.07 or lower, water has an a W rating of 1.00, and most products preserved with sugar, measure about 0.07, with the excess water bound so that bacteria are under osmotic pressure too great to survive(Katz, February 4, 2006).”

Whenever you buy food, you have decision to make: Healthy or...