Food Study Fridays: #4 - BBQ Sauce


Welcome to August and the second half of summer!
By now, I'm sure you've done your fair share of barbecuing--or at least eaten some barbecued meals. And it's that thick & tangy, sweet & spicy BBQ sauce just about the best thing you've ever tasted?
But have you ever wondered what's in your favorite BBQ sauce?
There are literally hundreds of different BBQ sauces available to buy at the store. And I'm sure that we all have our particular favorites. It would be nearly impossible for me to analyze every BBQ sauce on the market.
So I've chosen only five BBQ sauce brand to analyze this time on Food Study Fridays. Two of the brands are organic and the other three are not. But for all five of the brands, I've chosen to look closely at only their original recipe versions. So no honey garlic, extra bold & spicy, etc. Just good old original recipe for all.
Without further ado, here are the contestants, starting with the three brands of non-organic BBQ sauce:
For this article, I'm going to skip the step of looking at the nutritional facts labels. Suffice to say that all are reasonably high in sodium--although it varies from brand to brand. And the amounts of sweetener varies as well. But no matter how much you love your BBQ sauce, I think you'll agree that it is a condiment, so we're not looking for high nutrition when it comes to these sauces. (No, you can't live on BBQ sauce. It's a shame, but true I'm afraid.)
But what I look for--and I encourage you to do the same--is to check the ingredients list of your favorite BBQ sauce to see what exactly its made of.
In the case of the three BBQ sauces shown above, let's take a closer look. Let's start with the one in the middle. I'ts made from a well-known company, one that's a household name in every home in North America:
The picture's a little fuzzy, so here are the listed ingredients:
- water
- sugar/glucose-fructose
- vinegar
- modified cornstarch
- salt
- tomato paste
- spices and seasonings
- canola oil
- cooking molasses
- natural flavour
- mustard
- colour
- guar gum (thickener)
- (BOO41)
The first thing that jumps out at me is the rather confusing ingredient called "sugar/glucose-fructose". Because they are not the same thing at all. Sugar is sugar. And glucose-fructose is not sugar. So which are they using here? Or are they using both?
What is natural flavour? It's an excitotoxic flavor enhancer that is only available to food manufacturers and is anything but natural.
"Colour" could mean just about anything, but what gets me about its inclusion here is that even with all the tomato paste, molasses and mustard, they had to add "colour" to this product. I mean, wouldn't the product have a good color without having to add an artificial coloring agent? I would think so.
And what is "BOO41"? Heaven knows. But what I do know is that this particular product's ingredients listing does not live up to the claim on the neck of the bottle:
Okay, so on to the next two regular BBQ sauces, both of which are made for the Overwaitea Food Group here in Canada. (I'm sure you'll find similar store brands where you live.) First, the plain Western Family store brand original BBQ Sauce (shown on the left in the picture of the three BBQ sauce bottles). Here's it's ingredients list:
And here is my rogues gallery of suspect ingredients from the above list:
- hydrolyzed soy protein
- natural flavour
- sodium benzoate
- colour
The first two--hydrolyzed soy protein and natural flavour--are excitotoxins. Sodium benzoate is a common chemical food preservative. And,just like in the first BBQ sauce, they've added "colour" to this one. Why I don't know.
And the other store brand was my personal favorite until I realized what was in it. (It's the one on the right hand side of the picture of the three bottles.) Let's look at its ingredients list:
All of the usual suspects are here, including:
- spices
- flavour
- caramel
- potassium sorbate
- sodium benzoate
"Spices" is a little too vague. So is "flavour". Let's assume then that they are flavour enhancers that you and I can't buy in the store, and therefore are probably excitotoxins. Ditto for "caramel".
And potassium sorbate is a preservative, along with sodium benzoate.
Okay, now that we've picked apart the regular (non-organic) BBQ sauce, let's look at a couple organic brands:
Again, I'm not going to spend any time at all on the nutrition facts labels. Let's just get right to the meat of the issue and look at the ingredients lists, starting with the brand pictured on the left:
I sincerely hope that this company's funny way of listing their ingredients is meant to be whimsical, instead of evasive. Let me list all the ingredients for you (because it's tremendously difficult to read them off the package):
- organic honey
- water
- organic tomato paste
- organic vinegar
- salt
- organic cornstarch
- liquid smoke
- organic garlic powder
- organic onion powder
- natural colour
- organic spice
- xantham
"Organic spice" is a little mysterious, especially seeing as how they were so forthcoming listing "organic garlic powder" and "organic onion powder". But I guess we might give them that one. (Maybe it's meant to keep their secret recipe confidential.)
But "natural colour"? What exactly is that in terms of an ingredient that can be added to a recipe? I wonder: Do they get it in a big bottle from the Acme Food Colouring Company, or something?
And if you're wondering what "liquid smoke" is, click here for the Wikipedia definition.
Liquid smoke is an ingredient with controversy attached to it. There are a number of reasons, not least of which is how to control what trace particulate matter gets through into the product despite the distillation process. You can buy liquid smoke to use in your own cooking. My advice--if you're inclined to buy liquid smoke--is to buy the very best quality you can.
Okay then. Let's check out the ingredients list for our last BBQ sauce (the one on the right in the picture of the two organic sauces):
Okay, pretty good. Except for one thing...Natural smoke flavor.
Now, this could be one of two things. It could be an excitotoxin, much like most "natural flavor" ingredients are. Or it might be the same as the liquid smoke that was listed in the other organic BBQ sauce brand.
Considering that this brand is being so forthcoming with all the organic spices they're telling us about on the ingredients list, I'm tempted to give them the benefit of the doubt. But then again, even if it were the same sort of stuff as liquid smoke, it would still have the same sort of controversy attached to it.
In saying that, though, if I were inclined to buy BBQ sauce, I would choose this last brand (Organicville). They are much more forthcoming with their ingredients listing. That scores big points with me.
I say "if" because I don't buy BBQ sauce anymore.I just make my own, using some of the commonly listed ingredients--minus the artificial flavors, colors and preservatives that is.
And incidentally, you can too, customizing your BBQ sauce to your unique taste.
Happy barbecuing!
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