Vine-Ripened

TheDailyMeal.com: Food Labels, Decoded

Honestly, this one is a bit of a shill, but you probably already suspected that. The question is, just how much of a shill is it? The term refers to tomatoes; vine-ripened tomatoes sound like they’ve been left on the vine until red ripe, but what it actually means in practice is that they were left on the vine just a bit longer than "non-vine-ripened" tomatoes, just long enough for the first sign of red to appear on a mostly still green tomato. Before the tomato reaches the store, a blast of ethylene gas (a type of gas naturally produced by ripening fruit such as bananas) turns all tomatoes red, regardless of whether they are vine-ripened or not, to convince people that they’ll taste decent. Vine-ripened wont really taste any better, but they’ll probably cost a good deal more.

Click here to see: Tasty Tomato Recipes.

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Certified Angus

Certified Angus Beef is a registered trademark and brand of beef that comes from Angus cattle. In order to be certified, the beef must fall in one of the USDA's top two grading tiers: USDA Choice or USDA Prime. There are other criteria considered, such as carcass weight, fat thickness, the size of the rib-eye, and some cosmetic considerations, but basically it boils down to marbling how much intramuscular fat is in the beef. Certified Angus Beef is purported to have superior marbling to non-branded beef.

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Probiotic

Probiotics seem to be all the rage these days. Just walk down the dairy aisle in the supermarket and there are bound to be dozens of brands of yogurt all advertising the use of probiotics and perhaps some purported health benefits. Some claim improved immunity, while others claim better digestion. But do they really do any good? Experts say results will vary simply because there are so many strains of bacteria, each of which yield specific benefits, and many of which are untested. And your stomach's already full of probiotics anyway…

To read more about the debate, click here to see The Truth About Probiotics.

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Meat Grading

The USDA runs two separate programs for grading one is mandatory and the other voluntary. The mandatory program inspects for "wholesomeness," while the voluntary program is the one that most people are familiar with.

On beef, you will likely see one of three grades, based primarily on marbling, the fat found within the muscle. You will probably see USDA Select and Choice most often Choice has more marbling than Select. At the top end of the scale is Prime, most often seen in specialty retailers and restaurants. At the bottom end of the scale are USDA Standard, Cutter, and Canner, which are not usually seen in stores and used to make other products such as ground beef.

For poultry, you should only see Grade A meat in stores. Grade A simply means that "poultry products are virtually free from bruises, discolorations, and feathers. Bone-in products have no broken bones. For whole birds and parts with the skin on, there are no tears in the skin or exposed flesh that could dry out during cooking" Grades B and C are used in processed products.

Click here to see the Beef Grading Video.

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Pareve

Pareve, also sometimes spelled "parve" or "parev," appears on kosher products and means that the product is "neutral" in the sense that it does not contain meat or dairy products, and can be served with either meat or dairy. This is useful for those who observe the restriction against consuming meat and dairy together.

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Halal

Halal means "permitted" or "lawful" in Arabic. With respect to food, anything that is permitted under dietary guidelines outlined in the Quran is considered "halal." Here in the U.S., it is most commonly used to refer to meat. Halal meat must come from animals that are slaughtered in a humane manner; more specifically, the jugular vein must be cut with a sharp knife and all of the blood must be drained from the animal. This is because the Quran prohibits the consumption of animal blood, in addition to pork, pork products, and animals dead before slaughter.

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Artisanal

This isn't a legally regulated term either, and so it gets used a lot because it sounds good — when people think of artisanal, they're probably thinking of a passionate baker, slaving away over some hot hearth in the wee hours of the morning, making the same, perfect baguette that he does every morning. Someone French, probably. Or a grape grower, patiently culling his grapes to make sure only the best ones make it into the barrel. The dictionary definition implies that something artisanal is made by hand. If you believe in that as a starting point, adding the "food perspective" probably involves making something by hand, slowly, in small batches, and with great care, resulting in a superior product. In the olden days, the original sense of the term would have implied becoming an apprentice, then a journeyman in a craft, finally culminating in some sort of "masterpiece" that would result in ones status as an "artisan." So is that $30 piece of cheese behind the display counter a masterpiece? Well really, the only way to find out if an "artisanal" product is worth its weight in gold is to taste it.

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Heritage Breed

In his book "Eating Animals," Jonathan Safran Foer goes on at considerable length about the development (or downfall, if you agree with his perspective) of several animals that are central to meat-eating Americans: namely, chickens, pigs, and turkeys. To sum up a couple hundred pages of reading, basically, pigs have been bred into leaner animals (the "other white meat") that reproduce unnaturally quickly, while chickens and turkeys have been selected to grow faster on less feed, and in the case of layer hens, produce more eggs. All this has occurred to the detriment of their health and welfare and resulted in an almost mandatory use of antibiotics in their feed. These are animals that would not survive on their own in the wild past their usual dates of slaughter.

For consumers who already possess this knowledge but aren’t ready to give up meat, a few producers have stepped in claiming the use of "heritage breeds" Pollo Buono, for example, in the case of chicken, D'Artagnan in the case of turkeys, and Flying Pigs Farm in the case of pork. These animals are supposed to come from stock predating most of todays factory-farmed animals, may lead better lives, and well, quite frankly, taste better. But the only way to make sure is to examine each producer on a case-by-case basis.

Click here to see: What Are Heirloom Eggs?

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Sustainable

Here’s a term that’s used often by marketers and seldom defined. In the context of food production though, the simplest definition probably goes something like this: Food that has been produced or harvested in a "sustainable" manner minimizes environmental impact and takes into account resource and population management for the sake of future generations. But like many terms used for marketing, there is no official definition.

Click here to see Sustainable Fish Guide: The Best and Worst Fish.

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Hothouse-Grown

A hothouse is essentially a heated greenhouse used to grow plants out of season. Common examples of hothouse-grown vegetables and fruits include rhubarb, tomatoes, and peppers. Results vary by crop for tomatoes, its pretty hard to beat the flavor and texture of a field-grown tomato picked at the height of ripeness from a farmers market, or even better, grown in your own backyard. Some people swear by hothouse-grown rhubarb, though when cooked, it holds its color and flavor better than field-grown rhubarb and is less stringy.

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