Muffins I know every ingredient of, since I added it myself…
Feeling tempted by a guacamole containing only 1,5 percent avocado? Or a bread spread which is made of fat hardened with hydrogen gas and nickel?
A few years ago the journalist and writer Mats-Eric Nilsson wrote a book called “Den hemlige kocken” (The secret cook), which shocked many readers. The book contains the stories about what we are actually eating when we put what we believe is “farmhouse bread”, balsamic vinegar or strawberry jam in our mouths.
Not automatically bad
The debate following the book has definitely made many consumers in Sweden more conscious about additives and now more and more companies use the absence of additives in their products as a sales argument. One still has to be aware of that an added ingredient does not automatically mean something bad. I find it difficult to be roused to indignation by a bit of salt or by pectin, which you can find naturally in apples and is used to stabilize marmalade. But there sure are things that are more difficult to categorize as food.
Glueing the meat
The latest discussion on this theme is the “meat glue”, which has added a new word to the Swedish vocabulary. The European Union recently took a first step towards approval of the coagulation protein thrombin, which can be used to stick different small pieces of meat into one. The decision has caused a lot of debate and on a blog about “pure food” 1 800 persons have signed a petition against the meat glue in one week.
DIY
I suppose one way of knowing what you are eating is making it yourself. As a city dweller I’m not at all there, but buying simple raw ingredients and cooking and baking on your own works quite well too. As the local transport system is paralysed by heavy snow falls I have spent more time in my local neighbourhood, baking muffins. Buckwheat with apple and cinnamon turned out to be a nice combination.
