Organic

Good day Mr. Jelínek, I have been buying the organic vegetable broth from Country Life for years (I considered it the best on the market). In the ingredients, apart from dried vegetables, I find "yeast extract," and I always associated it with some extract from nutritional yeast. So, from the lesson I've understood that I'm actually buying hidden synthetic monosodium glutamate 621?
Thank you for the message.

This product contains yeast extract, which is a natural raw material. Yeast generally contains a smaller proportion of glutamic acid, whereas extracts contain much higher levels. Yeast extracts are used as a natural flavoring and taste enhancer precisely because of their higher concentration of glutamic acid, but they are not synthetic glutamic acid/glutamate.

Hello,

Since I have been on maternity leave, I have been concerned about the quality of food available in supermarket chains. Very often, when buying fruits and vegetables, the same question arises. Is it better to choose a product from our country, even if it is not labeled as organic and therefore chemically treated at various stages of growth (without being able to find out), or to buy organic produce originating from, for example, Spain/Peru/Austria, etc.?

My next question follows on from the first. Can the organic label on fruits and vegetables really be trusted?

Thank you.

You can trust the Bio label; compared to conventional agriculture, the regulations here are much more strictly controlled, making the resulting quality of the food fairly transparent (it's pointless to focus on exceptions, which exist in all areas). When selecting food in relation to its quality, the most important aspect is visual assessment (degree of freshness, signs of rot or mold, degree of ripeness, etc.). For example, significantly unripe or rotting organic fruits or vegetables should not be prioritized over fresh and ripe products from conventional agriculture, because the risk of health implications from microbial contamination outweighs the potential drawbacks of consuming non-organic products.

It is generally presented that it's preferable to prioritize products grown under local conditions over those imported from abroad. The decisive factor here is the distance that food must travel from the producer to the customer, meaning, for example, that Austria as a neighboring country may not pose a problem compared to Spain or even overseas countries.

Hello,
I read in a discussion that tempeh must be cooked before consumption? May I ask why? I've never heard of that. Even in many "organic and health restaurants," I've encountered tempeh just placed as a garnish on bread,
thank you.

Heat treatment of tempeh before consumption is recommended for its NATURAL version. The reason is the active fermentation molds, which can cause digestive issues in sensitive individuals or potentially burden the immune system.