barbaral (03/15/83)
Someone told me that restuarants often put some sort of chemicals on their salad bars to keep the vegetables in better shape. Has any one heard of this, if so what chemical is it? I've heard some grocery stores spray their produce with some sort of sulfide derivative to keep the vegetables looking fresher. Any info would be appreciated.
wolit (03/16/83)
Someone told me that restuarants often put some sort of chemicals on their salad bars to keep the vegetables in better shape. Has any one heard of this, if so what chemical is it? I've heard some grocery stores spray their produce with some sort of sulfide derivative to keep the vegetables looking fresher. Any info would be appreciated. A few weeks ago, "60 Minutes" (I think it was) ran a story on this. It seems that the food service and retailing industries use an anti-oxidant (sodium sulfite, if memory serves) to keep food attractive. The FDA classifies this stuff as safe, but some people are hypersensitive to it, and develop allergic-type reactions that are potentially very dangerous. Some groups are trying to get the FDA to force users of these chemicals to inform their patrons and customers that they are doing so. Naturally, the industry is fighting this. My personal feeling is that the customers do have a right to know if their health is being threatened (even if this only affects a very small fraction of the population). My guess is that the industry's insurers will probably force them either to give up the practice or post warnings, since they are otherwise open to liability claims by anyone who eats there and has a bad reaction. Jan Wolitzky
gary (03/17/83)
Is true: they do use chemicals on things to keep them fresher; there was a 60 minutes segment on it recently. A small fraction of the population is affected by these chemicals, and can be put into a coma by eating them. A woman on the show said she can't even be sure if she asks first: one restaurant assured her that they didn't use them and they ended up in the emergency room in a coma, and almost died. She ends up cooking her own food and bread (I think the chemicals were sulfides). gary cottrell
borman (03/22/83)
I used to work in a resturant as a cook, and all lettuce (and sometimes other salad items) were all soaked in some stuff that went by the brand name of "Snow White", (the spelling might have been different (sno white)) which was some sort of preservative. It would take those small brown spots out, and help the lettuce stay crisp and fresh longer. I don't know what was in the stuff, but it was mixed at a ratio of about 2 tablespoons to 5-10 gallons of water, and after it had soaked for a while, the lettece was thoughly rinsed before use. If it wasn't rinsed, you could taste the stuff, which didn't taste that great. -Dave Borman ihnss!ihnp4!stolaf!borman