Food production processes have changed dramatically in recent times as today’s society has:
- more mouths to feed,
- complex distribution systems to move the food around, get it into retail outlets, and eventually the consumer’s hands, and
- a perceived need for longer shelf lives both in the shop and in the home.
Unfortunately, these changes often bring with them a poorer quality end product. The process of making bread is a great example.
Years ago bread would be ‘mixed’ the night before it was needed and then left to ferment. Through the fermentation process the sour dough, natural yeast and organisms developed and those organisms would break down the proteins, fats and carbohydrates etc. to enhance the flavour, and add nutrients to the end product as well as making it easier to digest.
Health Food Preparation
The dough would sit on timber benches and in tubs that had been washed down with cider vinegar to control and contain the bugs. The cider vinegar itself ended up in the flour and bread and introduced other micro-organisms into the bread that further helped the creation of a complex, healthy food staple.
Nowadays the whole process of producing bread can take about an hour – no longer an overnight process. The preservatives, bread improvers & other substances added to accelerate the bread making process have in, some instances, been implicated in skin rashes and other usually mild health, behavioural and food intolerance side effects.
While we as a society have focused on shelf life, delivery and getting things done cleanly, consistently, quickly and cheaply this has often been to the detriment of the nutrient quality and healthfulness of the food.
Let’s all think carefully about the choices we make and the alternatives available to us.
Warm regards.
Paul Smith
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