Canned food safety guide
Canned food offers you more convenience but mishandling it can cause you health problems.
Canned food allows you to preserve food for long periods. Food that is packaged in cans can be preserved for one to five years without spoiling.
Some of the common canned foods include, meats, vegetables, soups, fruits, etc.
Canned Food Alliance states: 'Canning helps preserve foods and enhance nutrients and freshness of foods at their peak. This provides us access to nutritious, convenient, safe, and affordable foods year-round'.
READ: Bonang launches brand new canned sparkling wine
Dr Sylven Masoga, a dietitian, warns that some canned meats can be high in sodium and saturated fatty acids.
“Look for the Sodium content. Most canned foods are processed and tend to be high in Sodium. Sodium in the canned food may not only appear only as Sodium (Na), but it might appear as Sodium Chloride (NaCl) or Potassium Chloride (KCl) or Sodium Monosodium glutamate (MSG),” says Masoga.
He warns that some canned food might also be high in saturated fat and low in fibre.
“For example, when it comes to canned fruits, you may find that the peel of the skin of fruit are off, and that skin contains fibre that you want. Therefore, you might not get adequacy of the fibre from the canned fruits as opposed to the whole fruit.
“Whenever the fibre content of food is relatively low, individuals complaining of constipation and other digestive problems might not benefit from that fibre which are related to the proper functioning of the intestines, assisting in the lowering the amount of fat that enters into the blood and for regulating a gradual release of glucose from food upon entry into the bloodstream,” says Masoga.
As a result, Dr Masoga advises that “people must avoid choosing canned food, but preferably most of the time they must rather eat whole foods.”
Follow us on social media:
Listen to Jacaranda FM:
- 94.2
- Jacaranda FM App
- http://jacarandafm.com
- DStv 858/ OpenView 602
More From Jacaranda FM
Image courtesy of iStock/ @digicomphoto