> Food and Nutrition

Cut to the Mustard
by author Tanya Coad

Picture a solitary burger patty (veggie or otherwise) sitting naked on a bun. Somehow, it doesn’t seem complete. Where’s the pizzazz? Where’s the zip? Condiments add excitement to many of our favourite foods.

If you’re trying to improve the overall quality of your diet, condiments are one of the easiest ways to start. The increasing number of natural condiments available offers quality without sacrificing taste.

The term “condiment” generally refers to items used in small quantities to enhance or complement the flavour of a dish. ACNielsen, the world’s largest marketing-information company, lists 26 categories under this heading - everything from gravy mixes to prepared mustards. It also includes sweet condiments such as jellies, preserves, syrups, and flavoured butters; however, most of us think of savoury seasonings or accompaniments when we think of condiments.

Twenty years ago, the condiments section in a typical grocery store consisted of a few meagre shelves of ketchup, mustard, relish, and mayonnaise. Today you’re likely to find entire sections devoted to barbeque sauces, marinades (such as teriyaki sauce), chutneys, meat and seafood sauces, tamari, soy, gyoza, and other oriental sauces, and many more. The shelves tantalize with tastes from all over the world.

Bob Morisseau is regional merchandiser for grocery at Capers Community Markets, a popular chain of health food stores in Vancouver. He decides which natural grocery items (including condiments) “cut the mustard,” so to speak. Morisseau ensures that vendors adhere to Capers’ strict product standards, which state that wares must contain no artificial flavours, colours, chemical preservatives, additives, hydrogenated oils, cottonseed oils, artificial sweeteners, or irradiated ingredients, to name but a few of the taboos.

According to Morisseau, “The real success story in recent years, in the natural condiment category, has been hot sauces.” This once obscure subgroup has lately become one of the “hottest” commodities in the already thriving condiment aisle, with more than 24 hot sauces available.

Many condiments brandish the “natural” moniker, yet the meaning of this term is vague. According to the US Federal Trade Commission, the word “natural” on a label means the product does not contain synthetic or artificial ingredients. The term is meant to cover processes that, in general, can be used in a home kitchen.

Natural condiments may cost a little more than their conventional counterparts, but superior flavour and nutritional value make them worth it. Eating “cleaner” condiments also allows you to reduce your consumption of food additives. These unnatural ingredients are prevalent in many highly processed condiments. When I scrutinize a jar of an unfamiliar product, I ask myself, “Is this the way Grandma would have made it?” Or is there a long list of unpronounceable, polysyllabic words that I don’t recognize?

It’s easy to think, “Why does it matter if this product is full of additives? It’s only a tiny part of my meal.” The differences may seem small, but given the number of condiments we use, those little indiscretions can add up.

Children, with their less sophisticated palates, are major consumers of condiments such as ketchup, mustard, and relish (they consume more than 50 per cent of the ketchup produced). Not surprisingly, many manufacturers over-sweeten and over-salt their products to make them more appealing to kids. The emphasis, especially with ketchup, is on unnatural new colours and shaped “squeezable” plastic containers. In recent years, Heinz has successfully marketed their “EZ Squirt” line of ketchups, aimed directly at kids and teens. A variety of food dyes are used to create the colours Funky Purple, Tomato Red, and Blastin’ Green.

As food becomes highly processed, additives and artificial flavourings are needed to re-create flavour. Citric acid, polysorbate 80, citric acid, sorbic acid, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, methylcellulose, sulfites, colour, and “natural” flavours are just a few of the additives commonly found in conventional condiments. They do not necessarily pose serious health risks, but their mere presence helps denature food. Little testing has been done on most food additives, especially on anything other than their carcinogenic effects, so the cumulative effects of ingesting them are usually unknown.

Conventional condiments are often sweetened with sucrose (white sugar), dextrose, or glucose, all highly refined and devoid of nutrients. Natural condiments, on the other hand, tend to use better quality, less-refined sweeteners such as evaporated cane sugar (unbleached sugar, only minimally processed) or fructose (a fruit sugar), and less of them. Better yet, they use organic ingredients, important because they give consumers a chance to eliminate pesticides, support organic agriculture, and avoid the flood of genetically modified foods on the market.

Do a taste test. Sample a conventional brand of ketchup (typically containing tomato paste, white vinegar, liquid sugar, fructose syrup, salt, onion powder, and spices). You’ll discover that most of the flavour comes from the sugar, salt, and white vinegar.

Next, try an organic ketchup, perhaps one that contains organic tomato puree, organic cane sugar, organic white wine vinegar, sea salt, organic onion powder, oils of clove, cassia, and celery, organic garlic powder, and organic cayenne. You’ll notice that the taste in this ketchup is derived more from simple organic tomatoes and spices.

Natural condiments are readily available so you’ll easily find an endless array of high quality fixin’s to dress up that lonely sushi or that drab old burger patty.

According to ACNielsen’s MarketTrack, Grocery Category Performance Report, (2000):

• Canada’s top-selling condiment categories were mayonnaise, salad dressing, ketchup, and oriental sauces.
• Canadians purchased 35,282,000 bottles of ketchup that year.
• Meat and seafood sauces showed the most sales growth and brought in more than $51 million.

Tanya Coad is a professional writer and researcher with a long-time interest in natural foods and medicine. She has worked in the health food industry for seven years. Her articles have appeared in numerous health journals and magazines.

Source: alive #255, January 2004