Does Food Lose Its Nutritive Value Over Time ?
November 26, 2008 by rainier
Does food lose its nutritive value over time?They can and can’t. Take a drink product that claims to have Vitamin C in it.The manufacturer of this drink has to put an average of that vitamin in the product because some of the vitamins will deteriorate over a period of time. Depending on the temperature of the storage of the product, usually the higher the temperature or the longer the storage time, the more of the vitamin will end up deteriorating.Vitamin C happens to be one of the most sensitive. The government does inspections on these products. They will randomly do surprise visits and routinely visit the food manufacturing companies to take samples for testing.When the product is formulated, the food companies will add an average of vitamins. It protects the product during the shelf life.If they want the product to contain 100% of vitamin C at the end of the shelf life, then they may have to put in 200% to begin with because they know that 2 years later it will have lost half of its value.
Food companies can predict the rate of loss on similar products so that when a nutritional beverage is formulated they can base the level of any particular nutrient against historical values for similar foods.Food companies use this as the starting point and they will enter the food into something called accelerated storage. That is a higher level of temperature so they can monitor the level of loss.They call that storage study. Most food companies will do that on their own accord but they do that in case there is ever a government inspection because they want to make sure they are meeting their label claim.
Companies that manufacture vitamins and minerals do the same thing. If it is a dry food like a vitamin tablet the rate of deterioration is usually much slower because it is a dry environment.Fats can also oxidize. If you have ever had a bag of cake flour on your shelf in your kitchen and two or three years later it is full of weevils and you smell it and it has an awful smell, it is usually because the fat that is present in the flour has oxidized.
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