What's In Your Store-bought Fruit Pie?

A friend of mine recently forwarded an article about store-bought fruit pies.  Pies are usually made of flour, butter, eggs, milk, salt, sugar, fruit.  All very natural and, presumably, harmless ingredients. According to a former agronomist from France, Claude Bourguignon, store-bought fruit pies are full of so much more!  Here are some of the ingredients he found:

- Before being sown, the wheat grains are sprayed with fungicides.

- While it is growing, the wheat is sprayed with pesticides, hormones, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

- Once harvested, the wheat is fumigated with carbon tetrachloride, carbon bisulfide, and chlopyriphosmethyl. Not sure what any of these are? Neither am I…

- There are some more chemicals that are added to the flour along the way.

- The pastry cream is often made from factory-farmed eggs where chickens are fed grains containing antioxidants (E300 and E311), artificial flavors, emulsifiers, preservatives, artificial colors, and, worst of all, monosodium glutamate (also known as MSG). The chickens also get treated with antibiotics so that they don’t get sick while in the overcrowded conditions in which they live.

- The milk for the pastry cream also comes from factory-farmed cows, where cows get fed food containing many of the same chemicals fed to factory-farmed chickens.

- Once the pastry cream is made, stabilizers are added so that the tart won’t go bad the minute it hits the supermarket shelves.

- Just in case all these chemicals weren’t enough, more chemicals are added to the fruit, such as artificial flavors and colors.

Think twice before you hit the supermarket to make your fruit tart or pie for the holidays.  It might take a little longer to make it at home from fresh, natural and organic ingredients but at least you will know where your food is coming from and what hasn't been added to your dessert.

Rachel Khanna is a Certified Health Counselor. She resides with her husband and four daughters in Greenwich. Visit her website at: http://www.healthytiffin.net.