Well, I've survived three days of Panebello Pizza: two dinners and a lunch. I have to confess that I caved last night and made a very basic Coleslaw, to try and mix things up a bit.
I missed throwing a handful of seeds, or nuts over the salad; the tomato, pepper and avocado were also conspicuous by their absence. I wasn't hungry after dinner, but I could have eaten a bit more - sure enough, ten minutes later my hand was reaching for the packet of Disodium Diphosphate (or Ginger Nuts) and two quickly disappeared.
So, if I am a little unsure about eating unpronouncable additives in biscuits, I thought I'd use this rant to see what was in that boxed pizza that I won. I have to say, I NEVER buy frozen pizzas and I am not a fan of deep pan pizzas; the topping to bread ratio is simply not satisfying. The topping on the Panebello wasn't bad, it tasted ok (damned by faint praise?) and I could see vegetable representation in the form of several large chunks of pepper. Unfortunately, they sort of dwindled into nothing upon cooking; a real shame considering my liking for peppers.
You can follow the link underneath (or copy and paste), if you wish ;) The first 'thing' is that the Dr Oetker site says the pizza contains four portions - my bad. Well, actually at the time of picking this up, the Tosca website said the pizza should serve two. Um. Cut into four this would not feed a gnat, or a homunculus like myself. Heaven help you if you happen to be a normal sided adult!
In the crust there are some more of those sodium phosphates, so I'll ignore that for now. Let's rummage a little further.
1) Mono and Diglycerides are present. That's a cunningly disguised E number - E471. It's commonly used as a binder. Funny thing is, when I make pizza bases, I don't reach for the bottle labeled E471. I wonder how I manage? The pizza that I ate was a pepperoni one. But veggies and vegans beware: E471 is usually derived from vegetable oil, but it can come from animal fat and no, they don't have to say which...buyer beware! If you want to avoid animal products, then your best bet is to avoid anything with this additive.
2) Ascorbic Acid was also present - E300, another one hiding under a title, so unsuspecting consumers may not be aware that the product contains E-numbers. This one is generally used as an anti-oxidant food additive. What they don't tell you, is that it can also be used as a reductant in photograph development and in the production of plastics.
3) Amylase: E1100 - yes, this is a naturally occurring enzyme found in human saliva. But, again, veggies beware; in food it can derive from the pancreas of a pig.
You may wonder why I am bothered about potentially non veggie products in a meat dish - just check the 'cheese' options, in case they are in there. If there is no meat, is it vegetarian/vegan?
I'm pretty certain I remember general 'flapping' about the presence of E-numbers and additives in food. If I can make pizza bread with flour, yeast, salt and a dash of milk, then surely big companies can use simple ingredients too?
Do we *really know what we are eating, when we buy pre-made food?
http://www.oetker.ca/ca-en/our-products/panebello/pepperoni/pepperoni.html
No comments:
Post a Comment