Vanilla Impossible

Vanilla, like it's flavor, has a rich history. Not just in food, but in medicines, perfumes, candles, industrial applications, and so on; vanilla is multi-purpose. Vanilla has become a top tier flavor that is known by all and loved by most. Vanilla is so common, it's often times mistaken as the "plain" flavor in food products (being white also doesn't help). Vanilla ice cream, cookies, yogurt, pudding, cupcakes, crackers, coffee creamer, soda, the list goes on and on. An estimated 18,000 products contain vanilla flavor, yet as widespread as that may seem, vanilla is not that easy to find, nor is it cheap to produce. According to Huffpost, the average price for a kilogram of vanilla is $350-500, with a peak of $600 in 2017; the price constantly fluctuating (prices being higher lately thanks to hurricanes). Things haven't changed as vanilla is still staggeringly expensive - the second most expensive spice after saffron according to Huffpost - even though Americans consume 638 million beans a year. The reason vanilla is so expensive is because it is hard to grow. When many people think of growing fruits, vegetables, and flavors, they think of just throwing a seed into the ground and watering it. Vanilla beans are actually pollinated by hand. Hand pollination is not an easy craft and growing operations are small. Vanilla can only grow 10 to 20 degrees away from the equator, and 80% of today's natural vanilla hails from farms in Madagascar. It takes 600 hand-pollinated vanilla blossoms to produce 1 kilogram of vanilla beans. One pound of processed vanilla takes five to seven pounds of vanilla beans.

     Vanilla can be traced back to Mexico, which made its way across the world as colonization and conquests took place starting in the 1500's. In 1841, a 12 year old slave on the French island of Reunion named Edmond Albius developed the method of pollinating vanilla flowers by hand with a stick: a method that is still done today. 

       Because cultivating vanilla is such a task, and an expensive one at that, the vanilla that you know and love is highly unlikely actual vanilla, but rather vanilla flavoring made through chemistry. According to The Conversation, less than 1% of vanilla flavor is from actual vanilla beans. According to The Conversation, vanillin was developed in the 19th century, around 1858. Vanillin is the flavor compound that gives vanilla its smell that we know and love, and scientists were about to pull it out of "lignin" and "eugenol." 85% of vanilla today comes from "guaiacol", which in chemistry is also known as C6H4(OH)(OCH3). Vanilla is one of up to 250 chemical compounds that make up vanilla flavoring, according to Smithsonian. Water and ethanol are added to make vanilla extract. This chemistry and the fact that a little vanilla/vanilla goes a long way is why extracted vanilla is brown, but vanilla-flavored products are typically white and d on't change the color of other typical ingrediants such as milk and sugar. If your vanilla ice cream was brown, it would cost hundreds of dollars, and the overpowering flavor and taste would make you pass out, honestly.
     Brands today have joined the "natural foods" wave, but at a cost. Artificial ingredients and flavors in foods have been dropping this decade from fast food to grocery brands, with consumer support - mostly. The problem with vanilla is that it's just not as easy to switch as other flavors. According to Scientific American, Nestle was the one of the first major companies to announce an artificial overhaul in 2015 when it came to flavorings. Nestle announced that they would stop putting vanillin in their chocolate to contrast with the cocoa. This put the pressure on other brands and their products. And often strawberry, chocolate, coconut, and caramel flavors rely on vanilla as well to create a holistic flavor experience. Vanilla is a big part of what makes Nestle's chocolate "Nestle." 

     Even if food brands decide to rely less on synthetic vanillin, that doesn't mean completely natural beans are going to benefit from the switch. According to Scientific American, Solvay makes "natural" vanillin by fermenting yeast with ferulic acid, which comes from rice bran oil. So, still not beans. Eugenol is also used, but it's an industrial process, and it's not a cheap. Even petroleum can play a role. GMO vanillin has also been created by Evolva, but it has not yet been embraced by the FDA, food companies, or the public.
     The good thing is that because of the chemistry, it's become hard to really tell the difference between actual vanilla and vanilla flavoring - many actually preferring the latter. And vanillin is safe to consume. Again, it makes up 99% of what we know as vanilla. No other spice or flavoring can lay the crazy claims that vanilla does. So next time you crack open the vanilla ice cream or get a sugar high off vanilla icing on vanilla cupcakes, remember it's actually science that's made it possible and made it cheap.


*sources: The Conversation, Smithsonian, Science Meets Food, Fortune, Food Business News, NPR, Scientific American, Business Insider, Rodelle Kitchen, picture from Fine Cooking

The Truth of Juice

   

     The juice is loose. I'm not talking about OJ, but rather OJ. That OJ, yes the drinking one: orange juice. Orange juice, apple juice, grape juice, cranberry juice, papaya juice - there is a huge market for fruit juice. And now you can even get fusions such as "cran-apple", "cran-grape", "crango", and if that isn't enough - "orange-apple-pineapple", all in one bottle. Fruit juices are in a class of their own when it comes to commercial drinks such as water, sports drinks, and sodas, but are fruit juices really what they appear to be in the grocery store?

     How is orange juice really made? You shouldn't be surprised that the process involves more than just squeezing oranges. Most commercial orange juices are made by yes, squeezing juice out of the orange, but typically that juice is then stored and oxygen is removed. This process affects the juice flavor, which means artificial flavor packs have to be added. Flavor packs are packs of chemicals that have been engineered to replicate flavor. They are not listed on the ingredients label because they are derived from orange essence. These flavor packs are what makes Minute Maid, Tropicana, Simply Orange, and so on all have unique tastes. Companies such as Calvin Klein and Dior even supply these fragrant flavor packs. Ethyl butyrate is a chemical commonly found in the flavor packs of American orange juices. That is not exactly what you'd call, "freshly squeezed."
     The biggest argument presented against commercial juices is the added sugar content. According to Food Renegade, it takes 6-8 apples to make one cup of apple juice. Drinking one cup of apple juice is much easier (and in my opinion, more delicious) than eating 6 apples in a sitting. Yet that deliciousness of the juice make it easy to over-consume and load up on sugar. Healthline argues that the small amount of antioxidants and vitamins in juice doesn't make up for the sugar content. A 12 ounce Coca Cola contains 40 grams of sugar, while 12 ounces of apple juice contain up to 39 grams.  Another issue with fruit juices is that they lack the fiber that real fruits don't. Liquid calories are dangerous. I often catch myself consuming glasses upon glasses of juice without thinking about how much sugar that really is. Juices easily fly under the radar and the calories go unnoticed.

     Many consumers have lately caught on to the potential juice fraud. Naked, a popular juice brand has been under fire this decade for its ingredients. In 2013, Pepsi had to pay $9 million in a class-action lawsuit after it was found that the "all-natural" marketed (and not really naked) juices weren't that "natural." Zinc oxide, calcium pantothenate - a product of formaldehyde, and GMOs were found in Naked juices. That lawsuit was not the first for Naked. Trader Joe's, a fan favorite, has also been involved in lawsuits for "deceptive labeling."
     According to Today and the Food Institute, juice consumption is going down. Even Jamba Juice has decided to ax "Juice" from their name. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that the average American consumed 5.2 gallons of juice in 2017, the lowest number in at least 49 years. Recent consumer reports have not helped matters either. One report found levels of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, and arsenic in fruit juices that could pose health risks. Consumer Reports tested 45 popular fruit juices and found "elevated levels" in almost half. This is a concern, considering 74% of parents surveyed give their children 3 and younger juice at least once a day. The report also found grape juice to have the highest average level of heavy metals, 5 of the products with elevated levels were juice boxes, organic juices did not have lower levels than conventional ones, and every product tested had measurable levels of at least one of cadmium, arsenic, lead, or mercury. Check out the entire interactive report here.
     According to Today, 2013 was the first time in 43 years that Americans consumed more fresh fruit than we did sweeteners. Grapefruit consumption has torpedoed from 9 pounds a year in the 1980s to 1.9 pounds in 2017. Grapefruit juice consumption has plummeted 89% from 1968 to 2017. Orange juice has not been hit only in the United States, but rather the world, dropping 21% worldwide in 15 years - falling another 4% from 2016 to 2017. Every major juice type has been in decline since 2013.
     Does this all mean you should forever stay away from Minute Main, Tropicana, Motts, Ocean Spray, and company? Not necessarily. Even with the added chemicals, orange juice and other fruit juices are still generally safe to drink, otherwise they wouldn't be allowed to be sold. Yet if you want to be more health conscious, then you really want to watch how much of it you drink. It's ridiculously easy to load up on sugar through fruit juices, and you aren't going to get near the health benefits of eating actual fruit. There is also the concern of heavy metals in juices, but avoiding them completely is impossible as they're also found in soil and air. There are definitely more natural options for juice lovers. Smoothies are delicious and a great alternative for juice, but be careful when buying commercial smoothies as they can also be loaded with sugar. Making your own juice at home can be easy, fun, and will most assuredly be healthier.
     Fruit juices may be going though a tough time, but apple juice will always be #1 with me. Drink your juice, but drink in moderation, watch sugar content, buy from trusted brands, and always consider alternatives.

*Food Renegade, Huffington Post, Washingtonian, Today, Healthline, Consumer Reports, Citrus Industry, McKeany Flavell

Ketching Up

      Ketchup is an American icon. Ketchup is so versatile, being put on and/or dipped into with fries, hamburgers, chicken tenders, hot dogs, meatloaf, onion rings, baked beans and 93 other things. Ketchup is a potato chip flavor now. And these days you can find sriracha ketchup, curry ketchup, bacon ketchup, mango ketchup, Whataburger's delicious spicy ketchup, and if you had the privilege of being a 90's kid, back in the day you could find ketchup in blue, green, and purple. Ketchup is great at making food taste better. Up until recently, I hated tomatoes, but ketchup has always been my #1 condiment. According to Mobile Cuisine, 97% of Americans have ketchup in their kitchen, and June 5th is National Ketchup Day. Heinz alone sells over 650 million bottles a year. While ketchup is considered a pinnacle of American diets, it actually is not American, nor did ketchup originally come from tomatoes.

     As early as 300 BC, texts documented using soybeans, fish entrails, and meat to create an early ketchup-ish concoction. According to National Geographic, the word "ketchup" comes from the Chinese word "ke-tsiap", which is the name of a sauce that was made from - fermented fish organs, coming from Vietnam in the 1600's. Yes, ketchup did not come from America or tomatoes, it came from jarred Southeast Asian fish bladder. The British, of course, encountered this fish sauce while in Southeast Asia and began to try to replicate it in the 17th and 18th centuries. Those early British ketchups used everything but tomatoes; mushrooms, anchovies, oysters, and even walnuts. The British had already been introduced to tomatoes thanks to South America, but many in England saw them as poisonous. Around 1801 is when the first tomato ketchup recipe was published. This recipe contained brandy and spices, but still no sugar or vinegar. Ketchup evolved over the next few decades with Jonas Yerkes being the first to begin selling bottles of tomato ketchup in 1837.

     With ketchup connoisseurs not knowing how to properly store ketchup early on, plus public health concerns over additives led to the ketchup movement almost failing. One boujee, but right cookbook author in 1866 called commercial ketchup "filthy, decomposed, and putrid." Because of all the additives and chemicals, ketchup was even lethal.  The tomato growing season was short, meaning ketchup could only be made for a few months of the year, but because of supply and demand, ketchup needed to be able to be preserved year long. In an era before regulation, this often resulted in commercial ketchup being spoiled with bacteria, mold, and spores. And in an era before modern medicine, this often meant a lot of sick people as a result. "Death by ketchup" doesn't sound as great as you would think it would sound. 

     In came Henry J Heinz in 1876 who figured that using fresh ripe tomatoes, natural preservatives, and more vinegar was key; no more chemicals and tighter preservation methods. By the 1900's, commercial ketchup began to take over America. 1906 also saw the passing of the Pure Food and Drug Act, which in turn made ketchup less deadly. Before then, ketchup was found more in cookbooks than commercially. 

     Not only has ketchup served as America's condiment, at one point it was seen as medicine. In 1834, a physician from Ohio named Dr. John Cook Bennett declared that tomatoes could be used to treat indigestion and diarrhea. Dr. Bennett published tomato ketchup recipes, which were turned into pills.

     Ketchup has had a colorful history and it goes to show how food can amazingly evolve over time. Early ketchup was salty and bitter, but now it's sweet and savory. From fish stomachs left in the sun to tomatoes and vinegar, ketchup has came a long way to accompanying our chicken nuggets.

     Also a side, the "57 varieties" in Heinz means nothing. The "5" was Heinz' lucky number and the "7" was his wife's. When Heinz decided to put that on bottles, his company was already producing over 60 products anyway. Also, if you happen to be in the Collinsville, Illinois area anytime soon, be sure to pull over and get an Instagram selfie with the World's Largest Catsup (Ketchup) Bottle.

     

*Maxim, National Geographic, History, Mobile Cuisine, Smithsonian, The Spruce Eats, Fast Company

Clear Purple Sky

   

     Ever taken a look at the sky during the day? Notice how it's blue? Good, so you're not crazy, but you are seeing things. While we have always perceived the daytime sky as "blue", according to scientists, the sky is actually in fact "purple." It's the ingenuity of the human eye and brain that makes us think and see otherwise.

     As you already know, we receive our light from the Sun. While light appears "white", it is actually made up of a spectrum of colors. When that light is bent, those colors can be seen. This is why our sky appears blue and not red, yellow, or green. The light from the Sun is bent by molecules in our atmosphere, which causes the light to scatter. This is called Rayleigh scattering and it is more prominent with the blue/violet end of thespectrum. The fact that we even have a daytime and a colored sky is because Earth has an atmosphere. Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, is completely dark because there is no atmosphere to bend and scatter light.v  Red light contains longer wavelengths while blue and violet light are shorter. Shorter wavelengths are scattered more, so during the day, the blue wins. Sunsets and sunrises appear red because the Sun is magnified being so close to the horizon, which means the waves of red light win. This picture from Live Science simply explains it.

     So since the shorter the wavelength means the more scattered the light, wouldn't purple win out over blue? Correct, and is does; the sky is purple, but the reason we don't see it that way is simply the structure of our eyes. According to Forbes and the Rochester Institute of Technology, our eyes contain rods and cones which allow us to process light and color. The cones in our eyes are most sensitive to short, medium, and long wavelengths, which is the same as saying blue, green, and red. 

     Our blue-sensitive cones would be stimulated the most by blue light, but the green and red cones experience a little stimulation as well. If the sky truly was blue, then to our eyes it would appear as greenish-blue. While violet is the most scattered color in the sky, our eyes are not as sensitive to violet as they are blue. Yet our red cones are actually more sensitive to violent than blue, so if red cones dominated our eyes, violet with a tinge of red is what we'd. When all 3 types of colors are combined: the reddish tinge of violent, the bluish green tinge, and blue and violent, it all equals a pale blue sky that we have come to know and love. This all also means that animals perceive colors differently as well since the types of rods and cones vary among animals. 

     Don't freak out now and think that you have been lied to all your life. The sky may in reality be purple, but it's likely not as deep of a purple that you would imagine. Most ultraviolet light is blocked by the atmosphere, and the Sun lets off less violet light than the other colors. Still, it's a fascinating phenomenon, and it's also not unique Earth. 

     

*picture from BBC, links from Forbes, Rochester Institute of Technology, Live Science, HyperPhysics