The pasta I ate was from longueil Quebec produced by a factory called  Giardino. The process of manufacturing pasta is one that uses a lot of energy because of the machinery involved. The machinery involved in pasta not only handles massive amount of semolina it also needs to be cut, rolled, pressed and its temperatures regulated at different part of the manufacturing process (pasteurization and drying). In addition packaging is usually taken care of right at the processing plant. Here is a short five minute video which shows some of the machinery involved in the process described above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5Tqq4W4t_M

The milk I got came into a plastic bag see picture. As far as milk production is concerned the process takes approximately 11 steps! First the milk is harvested from the cows into a refrigerated tank from there a refrigerated truck collects the milk and deposits at a milk processing plant. The milk is put into a machine that cleans the milk and separate it depending on how fat it is. Depending on the type of milk being produced a certain amount of fat is kept and the rest is used for cream and butter. The milk is then fortified with vitamins and pasteurized with heat to kill bacteria. Once pasteurized most milks are homogenized meaning the fat is broken down into smaller particles so that it doesn’t float to the top and states distributed evenly throughout the milk. It is then cooled packaged and stored in refrigerated spaces where it will later be distributed by a refrigerated truck. Considering how many times the milk is transported and the fact that the temperature is regulated throughout the cleaning packaging and transportation process milk production uses considerable energy.

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Sources:

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-4/Milk.html

Kraft Peanut Butter is part of Kraft foods Inc the peanuts are roasted using one of two methods the batch technique or the continuous methods. Most large manufacturers like using the continuous methods in which the peanuts are fed through a hopper, roasted, cooled and made into butter in one step. I’m assuming Kraft foods Inc being the international company that they are use the less labor intensive continuous method. As far as the ingredients were concerned I looked up corn dextrin and found that it is a carbohydrate which is used in foods for its binding properties. It was deemed safe to use by the US FDA ( Food and Drug  Administration) in 1975.

My strawberry jam contained many ingredients whose use I questioned including pectin,citric acid, guar gum, potassium sorbate, sodium citrate, calcium chloride. Pectin and citric acid areused to make the strawberries into a gel. Guar gum is also used as a binding agent while potassium sorb ate is a preservative meant to increase shelf life of the product. Calcium chloride is another form of preservative used in food. The jelly came from montreal quebec and was packaged in a glass container

Sources:

“The Nuttiest Peanut Butter.” Consumer Reports. September, 1990, p. 588.

For more info on Kraft foods Inc: http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/companyProfile?symbol=KFT

ttp://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodIngredientsPackaging/GenerallyRecognizedasSafeGRAS/GRASSubstancesSCOGSDatabase/ucm261262.htm

http://www.wardchem.com/food-processing.htm

Pasta and ground beef

As far as the ground beef is concerned everyone has heard of the inhumane conditions of the slaughterhouses in its production. Here’s a 2 min video I found on the subject of beef production.

My meat was bought from walmart I did not get a chance to inspect the packaging to find out which of the large meat factories produced the beef. The beef making process is very efficient it cuts corners companies are able to produce as much beef as possible for as little as possible therefore increasing the profit margin. Often times however laypeople have suffered the consequences I still remember watching the outbreak of the mad cow diseases on the news and my mom refusing to buy beef for over a year in light of those events.

Source: http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/processing/

Breakfast

Dempster’s White Bread (4 pieces)

Kraft Smooth Peanut Butter

Selection Strawberry Spread

Neilson Partly skimmed milk (1 cup)

I liked this assignment I’d never really taken the time to look at the ingredients of the foods I ate and up until now where the food came from had no significance whatsoever. I will first post what I ate on March 7th then go into the details about it.