Defining “Unprocessed”
Sep 28, 2010, Updated Sep 12, 2020
With just a few days to go before we start our month of no processed foods whatsoever, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the definition of “unprocessed” — and whether specific foods are or are not okay during this challenge.
Before I go any further, let me reiterate that you need to do what’s right for you. No one is watching over your shoulder, and just as all food is intensely personal, so too is this challenge.
Likewise, if you feel you need to make any exceptions, by all means feel free to do so. Just make sure it’s a deliberate choice whenever possible.
My definition may not match your definition — and that’s okay. In fact, I encourage disagreement and discussion, since that’s the best way for us to learn together.
I also recognize that my definition isn’t perfect. My goal here isn’t “perfection” — it’s more to help spark a dialogue, increasing awareness about how our food is made, what we’re putting into our bodies, and how we relate to our food. (I’m also hoping to shed that last bit of pudge and finally get my six-pack abs, but that’s another story.)
Having said all that, here’s my working definition of unprocessed. I call it The Kitchen Test:
Unprocessed food is any food that could be made by a person with reasonable skill in a home kitchen with readily available, whole-food ingredients.
It doesn’t mean that you have to be able to make the food — but that the food could be made in a home kitchen by someone who knows what they’re doing. If it needs high-powered, industrial equipment, or could only be made in a laboratory, then it’s out.
Here’s a good example. Look at the ingredients for a PowerBar Triple Threatยฎ Chocolate Peanut Butter Crisp:
CORN SYRUP, SOY CRISPS (SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, RICE FLOUR, ALKALIZED COCOA), CHOCOLATEY COATING (SUGAR, FRACTIONATED PALM KERNEL OIL, COCOA, WHEY, NONFAT MILK, SOY LECITHIN, NATURAL VANILLA FLAVOR), WHOLE OATS, DRY ROASTED PEANUTS, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, INULIN (FROM CHICORY), NATURAL FLAVORS (CONTAINS PEANUT, MILK, SOY LECITHIN), RICE CRISPS (MILLED RICE, SUGAR, SALT, BARLEY MALT), SALTED PEANUT BUTTER, VEGETABLE GLYCERIN, AND LESS THAN 2% OF PEANUT FLOUR, ALMOND BUTTER, SALT, SOY LECITHIN, MINERALS: CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, POTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, FERROUS FUMARATE (IRON), VITAMINS: ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C), VITAMIN B6 HYDROCHLORIDE, RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), THIAMINE MONONITRATE (VITAMIN B1).
I’ve bolded any ingredients that I’m pretty sure you can’t make at home (or without some sort of industrial process). Compare that to the ingredients of a Cashew Cookie Lara Bar:
CASHEWS, DATES.
I’m absolutely certain that a cook with average skills could make something comparable to the Lara bar in your kitchen. But the PowerBar? Not so much.
Okay, so let me toss out a few other specific foods that I’ve been asked about:
Chocolate. Yup, it’s okay, because it’s possible to make chocolate at home. However, if the store-bought chocolate contains extra emulsifiers, flavorings, or other additives that you wouldn’t use if you were make it at home, it’s off the list.
Coffee. Yup. Try this fun project: Buy some green coffee beans (they’ve already been cleaned for you), and toast them in your popcorn air popper. (Skip the little yellow, blue, or pink packets and the powdered creamer.) Or you could grow your own coffee plant, and then wet-process the beans yourself. Totally doable at home (how much time do you have?)
Beer. Yup, I’ve got quite a few friends who make beer at home (one even grows his own hops — he makes truly incredible beers. Just saying.)
Wine. Yes, I’ve got quite a few friends who make wine at home. There is the question of sulfites, though. My winemaker friends usually add sulfites (sourced from winemaking suppliers, not from your regular grocery story, I believe) — so you’ll need to decide for yourself if you’ll seek out sulfite-free wines.
[Wine Update: Please read Dave’s clarification in the comments.]
Vodka, Gin, and other Spirits. Although I don’t recommend distilling your own (and it may be illegal), it’s certainly possible to do this at home. Just skip the gimmicky flavored ones and I’m sure you’ll be fine. Of course, it depends on how picky you want to be. You may wish to consider what sugars/starches are being used to feed the fermentation process. If you want to research this some more, please report back!
Bacon and Sausage. As long as there are no additives (nitrates, flavorings, etc.), and it’s a high-quality product, you’re probably okay here. Maybe this is a good opportunity to get to know a local butcher.
“Veggie Burgers “and “Fake Meats.” Most of these should be avoided, as they usually contain a lot of textured vegetable protein (which I’m almost certain you couldn’t make at home). But if you are in a pinch, you can probably find something that’ll work. You’ll really need to read the ingredient list: An All-American Flame-Grilled Boca Burger is definitely out. Dr. Praeger’s Gluten Free California Veggie Burger is certainly better, though it’s got a couple of ingredients that are questionable. (Personally, I’m going to do my best to avoid these).
Cooking Oils. It is possible to press your own oils at home, though it would be a rather inefficient process. I would expect that nut oils would be easier (just grind them up and let them separate, like your jar of peanut butter, right?). Also, these old oil press instructions and drawings are fun.
Salt. Depending on how refined it is, this may or may not be okay. Stick with the natural, unprocessed salts such as the fabulous Fleur De Sel.
Sugar. Usually, the term “sugar” refers to bleached table sugar, those fine-white granulated crystals that come from sugar cane or sugar beets. The bleaching is done with sulfur dioxide, an ingredient that hopefully isn’t in your pantry. Next!
Turbinado Sugar (“Raw” Sugar) is the same stuff — but it hasn’t been bleached. I think it would be possible to make turbinado sugar crystals at home, if you had some sugar cane stalks ready to go. Although there are a couple of steps in the commercial process that you couldn’t do, I’m guessing you could still get the crystals if you’re patient enough (perhaps a countertop food dehydrator would help evaporation).
[Sugar Update: Please read MrJackHonky’s thoughts on sugar in the comments.]
Honey. Good to go; in fact, this is probably the most “unprocessed” sweetener available.
Agave Nectar. You’re probably okay with this one. Some agave is simply heated (at relatively low temperatures). It may also be enzymatically processed. Any agave experts out there want to weigh in?
Corn Syrup and High Fructose Corn Syrup. Both of these are too complicated to make at home. Off the list.
Flour. As long as it’s 100% whole grain flour, it’s okay. You could certainly grind whole grains in your kitchen. As Bob’s Red Mill says, one pound in, one pound out. Refined flours, however, have had the germ and bran removed (leaving just the fluffy endosperm) — and are likely bleached or brominated, and may be enriched with nutrients that had been previously removed.
[Flour Update: Refined flour, as long as it’s un-bleached and un-enriched, actually would pass the Kitchen Test. Check out this flour followup in the forums.]
Corn Meal and Masa. Again, if these are made with the whole grain, then it’s all good.
Butter. Yup, you could certainly make real butter at home, if you’re so inclined.
Cheese. Yup. In fact, I already make cheese at home. Skip the “pasteurized processed” cheeses, or “cheese foods,” of course.
Nut Butters. Look at the ingredient list. If it’s just “Nuts & Salt” (or better yet, just Nuts), then it’s great. But if it’s got stabilizers, sweeteners, and oils, it’s a no-no (Skippy, I’m looking at you!)
Spices. Yup, these are okay. You could certainly grow them at home, dry them, and then grind them as needed.
Breads. Again, it’s all about the ingredient list. The best option, of course, is to make it at home. But if it’s store-bought, read the ingredient list. The flour should be whole grain (avoid these pitfalls), and there shouldn’t be fillers, preservatives, artificial sweeteners (yes, they sometimes add those to 100% whole wheat breads. Oroweat, I’m looking at you and your acesulfame potassium!)
Okay, I think that covers most of the biggies. I’m sure I’ve missed some, so please ask in the comments. Also, if you disagree with any of my conclusions, or can add any other bits of advice, we’d all love to hear about it!
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If you haven’t taken the October: Unprocessed pledge yet, now’s the time!
Image from homedistiller.org.
I’m gonna give this a shot. I’ve always been a fan of unprocessed, but I’ve never done it in such an active way. I’m also contemplating adding much more vegan food to my diet. I don’t eat all that much cheese in my life and I’ve decided that the pluses of dairy are pretty much an invention of dairy farmers. However, I do believe that there is an ecological basis for the idea that certain animals are prey and others are predators. So while I will still eat meat, it will only be grass-fed, organic, wild-caught, etc. I’m thinking that because those meats are more expensive, they are going to have to become a lesser portion of my diet. What’s the word on turkey bacon? I’m assuming it’s right out, huh? And if not that, what’s the best option? I do like some bacon with my eggs, that’s for sure.… Read more ยป
What about dried fruits? I never buy dried fruits with sugar added (like dried mangos) but I do buy apricots and apples. The ingredients in the dried apricots are 1) Apricots and 2) Sulfur dioxide (to preserve). Now, I know sulfur dioxide is not something I can make or have around the house, but would it be okay to have the dried fruit (free of extra sugar of course) or would it still be a big no-no?
Andrew,
You can buy fruit that has been dehydrated without the sulfur dioxide. Freeze dried fruit for example, though i’m not sure if this counts as processing or not.
I’ve always attempted to eat non-processed (although this doesn’t always work). The way I’ve defined ‘processed’ is to consider the way the food looks. If it looks pretty much the same way as it started/grew (i.e. an apple) then generally its not processed. If it doesn’t look like any recognisable food that occurs naturally (i.e. one of those fruit roll up thingys) why on earth would you put it in your mouth! It doesn’t even look like FOOD! I find it works for most things. Piece of fish – yes! Fish Finger – no way! I guess for things like bread and pasta this gets a bit more tricky, and to me, technically, these things are a little bit processed… so the ‘if you can make it in your kitchen rule’ works well here – thanks!
You know, I actually hate this project as you define it. I apologize for sounding like a jerk, but it does strike me as conceited and unbalanced (and overall bourgeois, but that’s a separate question). This sounds really extreme and puritanical to me – not unlike the crunchy hippies who demonize sugar and take away their kids’ Halloween candy. For perspective, here is my food climate: I do not buy anything in box form (those salty snacks you’ve mentioned in the other post are non-foods in my mind as it is), make all meals and all bread from scratch, and yet I am more than comfortable with the use of boughten condiments (think ketchup, mustard, mayo, etc – and not because I couldn’t make them myself but because it’s not worth my while, all things considered) and things like sweetened condensed milk, chocolate, beer/wine, etc. Meanwhile, “things you could do… Read more ยป
Thanks for leaving this comment. I certainly welcome differing opinions, though I’m sorry to hear you “hate” this project. I guess either it’s struck a particular nerve for you, or you have misunderstood the goal of the project.
I encourage people to come up with their own definition of “unprocessed” and apply it as they see fit. It sounds to me like you’ve already got your own clear idea of where you draw the line, and that’s terrific.
The point is not to get caught up in the details, and certainly not to finger-wag. Rather, as I said above, it’s to help spark a dialogue and increase awareness about how our food is made, what we’re putting into our bodies, and how we relate to our food.
Andrew, My husband and I are looking into this, though we are not totally committed to starting in October. We are living in a friends casita, with a kitchenette that has a toaster oven and a microwave, howevere, I have purchased a two burner stove to cook on temporailly, and we plan to be back on our own sometime before Christmas and see about starting then.
My question is we love stir fry and oriental cooking, is there a way to make your own soy sauce and rice paper wrapping (for egg rolls)? I already use fresh ingredients and very little oil.
Is chicken boullion considered processed because of the ‘artificial flavoring’?
thanks so muchor any response.
Hi TBird! I’ve been asked about soy sauce a few times in the past couple of days — interesting how some things keeping coming up all at once. Depending on the ingredients, store-bought soy sauce may pass the kitchen test — since it is possible to make it at home. The trickiest part is that many will include preservatives, which you wouldn’t use at home. So read the ingredients and decide from there. As for the rice paper wraps — again, it depends on the ingredients. I just found some on amazon that list the ingredients as only “rice flour, water, salt.” Could you certainly make those ingredients. It might be tricky to get the papers as thin as they do by machine, but that seems less important to me than the ingredients themselves. I’m going to be writing up a post today or tomorrow to try to answer some… Read more ยป
Oh – forgot to answer your chicken boullion question! Artificial flavoring doesn’t pass the kitchen test, sorry. Also, I consider “natural flavor” to be off-limits as well — although some natural flavors might be able to be made in your kitchen, my understanding is that most are made in a lab and couldn’t be made at home. (“Natural” just requires the original source of the flavoring to be from an edible substance — but it can be modified significantly beyond that). The frustrating part is that you can’t tell from the label… and it’s usually a trade secret that manufacturers don’t want to share (so it can’t be duplicated).
Hope that helps!
I just found this and am considering to join this October.
I have a question: I may have misunderstood something, but how can chocolate be ok if sugar is not? I am hoping to find some sweet options as I am not a fan of honey.
Hi Jutta! I sure hope you’ll join in the fun!
It definitely gets a little confusing around some particular ingredients, and I don’t think I had fully considered sugar when I originally wrote this post last year.
Based on the conversation that happened after I posted, it seems that that some sugars are okay, depending on how they’ve been processed. Muscovado, Turbinado, Evaporated Cane Juice, and Date sugar are all okay in my opinion. It’s the refined (and often generically-labelled) plain “sugar” that doesn’t pass the kitchen test.
So, if you find a chocolate bar that’s made with evaporated cane juice, for example, (and without lecithin), it may pass the test. To be honest, I think there are some out there like that, but it will definitely be tricky to find.
Hope that helps?
My wife decided that she was doing this and has asked my help, as I will be cooking alot of the dinners. I am a baker by training and will probably be making most of the bread for the household while we are doing this. As my mother-in-law is gluten-free I know that we will have to make some exceptions for her to have bread as well (xanthan gum, and the like), but I can’t find anything here about baking soda. I know baking powder is out, as the chemical acids that they use are not reddily made at home, but I was wondering what your take is on baking soda (as I could use that and add an acidic ingredient like buttermilk).
Thank you ahead of time for anything you may dig up.
Hi! Glad you’re joining in! I don’t think Baking Soda/Baking Powder came up last year, surprisingly. I did a little bit of Googling, and the best answer I can come up with is that strictly speaking, it would be tough to create baking soda in your own kitchen. However, that’s not to say it’s not possible — you just might need to have more knowledge about chemistry than me! (And you wouldn’t have to do it yourself — it just needs to be possible.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_bicarbonate#Production http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solvay_process Having said that, people have been using Baking Soda for at least 150 years (more?), and it doesn’t seem to be a harmful ingredient in any way, as far as I can tell. This may be one of the few instances where strict application of the Kitchen Rule is counter-productive. As such, I think it’s reasonable to make a deliberate exception and allow baking… Read more ยป
Loved the post and the discussion so much that you have me thinking of going totally unprocessed in October. Thanks, Andrew!
Thanks Andrew. The truth is we don’t ‘have’ to make bacon with pink salt but then it won’t have much of a shelf life (which I could deal with by freezing small portions) but it would also be brown and for some reason bacon that doesn’t look like what we are used to would probably be harder for me to deal with. Brown bacon? That being said, I have 5 lbs curing in the fridge that I’m going to smoke this weekend, so in my case guess I would have to consider this one of those personal opt outs in worse case scenario.
Very interesting. For someone who doesn’t buy much in the way of processed foods it doesn’t look that difficult but then it would not have meant the bread I had for breakfast either. Uh oh.
One question though. I cure my own bacon using pink salt which includes nitrates. I’ve read the pros and cons but am following the advice of Michael Ruhlman in his book Charcuterie and using it. Does that put it off the list?
Good question, Barbara! I haven’t done much research into curing salt and sodium nitrate, though I did just poke around on Wikipedia a little bit. Seems to me that if you’re curing your own bacon, in your own kitchen, that likely passes the kitchen test. If you want to get really picky, I suppose you have to figure out if it’s possible, at least in theory, for you to produce your own pink salt (complete with sodium nitrate) at home. I didn’t easily find online where the sodium nitrates in commercially-available pink salt come from. This could also be one of those places where you make a deliberate exception — acknowledging perhaps that the pros outweigh the cons, and therefore it’s not “off the list” for you. I believe many commercial manufacturers are now using celery salt because it contains high levels of naturally-occurring nitrates (which, oddly enough, means they… Read more ยป