Monday 12 March 2012

The can of chickpeas I bought has the words Contains sulphites.

Should I worry? What are sulphites?

Scroll down here to start gathering responses to that question. Can you find any more?

One list I found in Planet Internet listed all the following numbers as sulphites: E220, E221, E222, E223, E224, E225, E226, E227, E228. The Wikipedia entry is different.

But most responses agree that sulphites are a preservative, and give a product a longer shelf life. They're also 'natural' in that they are part of your naturally occurring body.

After your research, what's your response? Are sulphites in food something I should worry about?

Monday 5 March 2012

Chemistry in your raisin bun

Welcome, ladies, to an 8-part series, Eat your chemistry.

Buy a pack of raisin buns, eat them, then look at the ingredients. You'll see E101 is listed!

Oh no! What have you eaten! What is E101?

Research riboflavin on planet internet. Are the following true or false?

It has poor solubility in water.
It is used as an orange-red colour additive in food.
It is a member of the B vitamin family.
It plays tennis.

Can cells process riboflavin? When you see E101 listed in your raisin bun what would you recommend we do: eat it or junk it?