News & Press

Dressed To Kill (Telegraph.co.uk)

Gem

A friend just sent me this article, by Rosie Prince of the Telegraph. It’s a bit old (January 2006) but I think it is still an interesting read, not just because of its comments about “Great tracts of space on shop shelves… devoted to the food industry’s vinaigrette imaginings; hideous creations stuffed with cheap bulking compounds and additives…” and the need for better labelling regulations on these products, but also because nothing appears to have changed in the past since then!

There is definately a lot which could be improved but, to a certain extent, you can ensure that you are buying a good quality dressing by watching out for:

Cheap Extenders
Many dressings have water as the first ingredient on their label – which means that the dressing’s main ingredient is exactly that. This is especially true of the ‘low fat’ dressings. So while calories are brought down to impressively low levels, the flavour of the dressing is diluted, meaning that you end up putting much more than the suggested serving to achieve a satisfactory level of taste. On top of this, manufacturers often use maize starch or corn flour to bulk up these watery dressings. Hmmn… Nice!

Preservatives and Artificial Ingredients
Many dressings are packed with preservatives, artificial colourings and flavourings to make them last on shelf for 2-3 years and still look and taste appealing. In our opinion it is absolutely unnecessary for products to stay in your fridge for this long so you have to ask yourself why do manufacturers add so much preservative? You guessed it; it’s so that they can produce larger quantities per production run and push down their costs.

It is possible to achieve a six month shelf life naturally (Righteous has!) and, without extenders diluting the flavours, you’ll need to use less dressing on your salads. So why not keep your purchases ‘All Natural’ – or, if you have time, make your own dressings at home?

Read Rosie Prince’s article in The Telegraph