We live in an international food world. Your asparagus may come from Chile, your tomatoes from Mexico, and your apples from Australia. Thanks to a food labeling law that finally went into effect last year this information is no longer hidden. You can check the label and find out your food’s country of origin. Which wound up being an eye opener for me when I looked in my cupboard recently.
Processed Mandarin Oranges
My children love canned mandarin oranges. They’re soft, sweet, and bright orange. They’re also from China. It turns out that a large percentage of canned mandarins are grown and processed in China, which surprised me since there are many growers here in the United States. But the Chinese can do it cheaper, which is why they cornered the canned mandarin market.
Product of China
Although there have been no reports recently of contaminated food products from China, I am still leery of eating food processed in a country with such a bad track record. And make no mistake about it, the mandarins in the can are processed: to get that not quite natural bright orange color, the orange segments are first dipped in scalding water and then subjected to a lye solution to dissolve the skins. Afterward they are rinsed several times in plain water and then packed in the can’s sugary syrup. This is a long step from the tree and explains why a canned mandarin doesn’t taste nearly as good as a fresh mandarin. There is no question that all that processing also takes a nutritional toll.
Which leads me to be thankful that we are now in mandarin season locally. Organic mandarins are about as safe as you can get, and they taste great. Stay tuned to find out the difference between certified organic mandarins and the ubiquitous Cuties. The difference may surprise you!
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