“You are what you eat. What would YOU like to be?”
― Julie Murphy, Nutrition Across A Lifetime
From growing your own food, to shopping in the store, to prepping and cooking: everyone knows that creating a meal is hard work. You may not know that each of these steps removes nutrients from your food. IFC’s new vacuum packed (TEPC) meals will not only save you time in the kitchen, they will help preserve the nutrition in your meal, helping you to create a restaurant quality dining experience that is healthy and tastes great, too.
Light, Oxygen, Heat and Water are all required to prepare a meal, and all greatly affect the nutrients in your food. As soon as the cooking process beings, food begins to loose vitamins and minerals. In fact any alteration to food will cause nutrient loss, but these four elements are the biggest culprits when it comes to nutrient loss in food. IFC’s TEPC pouch helps to protect food from these elements, preserving nutrients and the natural flavors of the meal.
Light and Oxygen
When shopping, preparing, and cooking, food will inevitably be exposed to light and oxygen. Light and oxygen can cause food to loose vitamin content, especially vitamins A, C and E. Oxygen can also cause food to oxidize, which can remove healthy polyunsaturated fatty acids. It would be impossible to avoid light and oxygen, so the key to saving vitamins is to limit the amount of time and the surface area of food that is exposed. When meals are prepared at IFC, the protein is cut to size, seasoned, and immediately vacuum sealed uncooked in the TEPC pouch. This process reduces the food’s exposure to oxygen and limits exposure to light. The plastic also forms a barrier, which helps protect against oxidation. The quick turnaround from butcher to TEPC pouch helps to eliminate vitamin and mineral loss, ensuring IFC’s meals remain nutritious. And since the protein is cut, seasoned, and sealed so quickly, the protein’s natural flavors are protected and preserved for the diner’s enjoyment.
Heat
Heat can quickly remove vitamins and minerals and destroy the nutritional content of food. Some forms of heat, like cooking over a grill or smoker, can add HCAs (heterocyclic amines) and PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) to food, which are known carcinogens. The more food is exposed to heat, the greater the nutrient loss. Many types of packaged food are pre-cooked, and then must be heated again to serve. At IFC, our vacuum packed meals are sealed uncooked, limiting the amount of time the food will be exposed to heat. IFC’s TEPC pouch also allows for greater control over temperature and cooking time, ensuring the food is cooked evenly (thus eliminating any worry of under-cooked meat resulting in bacteria) and helps keep cooking times to a minimum. Cooking in the pouch also allows for lower overall cooking temperatures, which helps eliminate break down of protein. Serving meals as close to cooking time as possible also helps retain vitamins and minerals. IFC’s vacuum packed meals allow food to be cooked and served immediately, saving precious nutrients and the overall integrity of the food. Freshly cooking the protein in the pouch to order, the ability to control the temperature, and preserving the integrity of the food not only saves nutrients, but allows for a delicious meal that tastes as if it came fresh from the butcher.
Water
Many nutrients, such as calcium, potassium and vitamin B, are lost when cooking food in water, or other liquids such as oil. This is called leaching. Cooking with as little oil or water as possible can help keep these vitamins and minerals from being leached from the food. When IFC creates its vacuum packed TEPC meals, no water or oil is added. The food will be cooked in its own natural juices, which eliminates leaching. Cooking food in this way also allows retention of many vitamins and minerals that are often lost when the juices are discarded. The delicious, natural flavors of the food are sealed in the pouch, along with vitamins and minerals that would otherwise be wasted. Sealing in the food’s natural flavors in this way also reduces the need to add extra salt and seasoning to food, thus reducing sodium content and allowing for more complex and compelling flavors to come through with each meal.
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Helping to eliminate exposure to light and oxygen, reducing and controlling cooking times, eliminating the need for cooking liquids, and sealing in natural, vitamin rich juices are great ways that IFC is helping to create nutritious meals. With consumers becoming more and more conscious of their health and the food they eat, IFC’s vacuum packed TEPC meals are a great way to deliver nutritious, easy to make meals that even Michelin star chefs would be proud to serve and happy to eat.
What do you do to keep your meals nutritious? Share your stories with us: