How To Avoid GMO Foods For The Everyday Home Cook

GMO Food Growing In A Field

“You don’t want to buy those strawberries,” says my neighbour with authority. “They’re so perfect they’re GMO strawberries.”

“No they aren’t,” I say politely. “Strawberries are not a GMO food.”

He looks at me with a blank stare, shakes his head as if I’ve just told him that people live on Mars and grow strawberries, and then abruptly changes the subject.

I get it. GMOs are confusing for the everyday home cook and a conversation non-starter. Many food labels proudly claim to be non GMO, which sounds fantastic. But, plenty of everyday home cooks purchase these products without fully understanding what non GMO represents. So to help you make informed decisions at the grocery store here’s a simple explanation about what GMO means and how to avoid them. 

What Is Skyr Yogurt?

Skyr Yogurt

The number of yogurt products available at the grocery store is growing as fast as the cereal aisle. Have you noticed? The choices are endless: Balkan style, stirred, Greek, organic, 2%, 5%, or no per cent, sweetened, unsweetened, sweetened with artificial sweeteners. You get the idea. It’s enough to throw you into a full blown existential crisis right there in the dairy aisle.

Baffling Tomato Sauce & Tomato Sauce With Olives and Capers

Tomato Sauce

What's Ingredients Are In Tomato Sauce

Food labels always baffle me. You think you understand them but, like a good mystery novel, the unexpected always happens. For instance, I noticed a can of Hunt’s Tomato Sauce boasting a ‘Fat Free’ Status. Funny I thought, I never knew tomatoes contained fat—unless of course there is a new hybrid tomato laden with fat. Which you never know, food scientists are doing some funky things these days, like growing ground beef in a petri dish as recently reported in the National Geographic.

I just presumed tomato sauce was simply tomatoes mushed-up with a little water, like tomato juice but thicker. But on reading the ingredient list I noticed cottonseed oil, which sounds like a fat. Right? So how can it be “fat free”?

I phoned up Hunt’s and asked. They told me the cottonseed oil is used as a preservative and as the amount is so small, they don’t list it on the Nutrition Facts Label. According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website, “Fat Free” means less than .05 grams of fat per serving size which, in this case, is half a cup.

So, technically it’s fat free. However, why should tomato sauce claim to be fat free in the first place?

My tomato sauce curiosity was piqued so I purchased three other brands and, although neither contained cottonseed oil or claimed to be ‘fat free,’ they all had other self-proclaimed attributes. By the way, cottonseed oil comes from the seeds of a cotton plant, which is not a vegetable (we wear cotton, we don’t eat it). One boasted “Source of Vitamin A.” the other, “Low Sodium” and the last one was a proud “product of Italy.” All four had different ingredients and nutritional facts listed. Purchasing tomato sauce turned out to be a true puzzle. It is no wonder labels and products baffle me.