Fruit And Vegetables In Processed Foods by Jane Thurnell-Read

 The adverts often seem to be suggesting that fruit and vegetables used in ready-meals are lovingly prepared, but the truth may be far removed from that.

When fruit and vegetables are used in processed food, or frozen or canned, they often need to be peeled. This can be done either mechanically or using chemicals.

In mechanical peeling machinery is used to do the job. In chemical peeling (also known as lye peeling), caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) is used to loosen the skin. Strong water jets are used to remove the skin completely. The fruit or vegetable is then boiled briefly or washed with dilute citric acid to avoid it becoming discoloured through oxidation.

The manufacturers who use this process claim that all the caustic soda is removed by the water, but am I the only one who feels uneasy about this process? We do not know if there are long term health concerns about this and similar processed which are changing dramatically the nature of the food we eat, often without us being aware of it.