If you are one of my awesome LTF readers, you know I eat a ton of fresh spinach in my weight loss green smoothies. And if you are new here, welcome!
I buy the big plastic tubs of organic spinach and use about 3-4 of them a week. It’s definitely the most expensive part of the smoothies I enjoy.
I was speaking with my awesome fitness trainer Ashli and she mentioned that she uses frozen spinach in her smoothies. Great idea! But I want only raw spinach so I need to make sure that the spinach is raw. I learned earlier this year that the frozen peas and carrots (and most of the other frozen veg) is actually quick blanched which kills the enzymes and since I am so enzyme deficient, it’s very important to me that I get the raw spinach.
So off to Whole Foods I went to see their frozen spinach selection. At the Whole Foods in Downtown Austin, they had 2 kinds: non-organic whole leaf and organic chopped spinach. Neither package noted whether it was raw. I asked the head clerk and she gave me an email address for WF corporate to get help. I emailed yesterday and will update once I hear back.
(if anyone knows if the frozen spinach is raw, I would love you forever. I’ve asked on Raw Food Rehab and searched the web with no answer as of yet)
UPDATE September 20 – I heard back from Whole Foods – here is their reply, “Our frozen spinach is blanched prior to freezing. I have spent some time looking into this for another customer (in reference to frozen veggies in general, not spinach specifically) and I have yet to find a producer that does not briefly blanch the vegetables before they are frozen.”
Today I was in Central Market which is a local version of Whole Foods here in Austin. I looked at their frozen spinach and frankly was SHOCKED at what I saw. I picked up a package of frozen chopped organic spinach – you can see the label below. Look at what it says – MADE IN CHINA!!!
What I like is that the logo for the production “farm” makes it look like a small, family farm named “Woodstock Farms” but really the product comes from China.
Just to be clear, the package from Whole Foods says “Product of USA”.
I don’t know how I feel about buying vegetables from China. The package says it is “certified organic” whatever that means. I know some of the fruit I buy comes from Mexico. So does it even matter where it comes from if it is tested to be organic?
I’d love some feedback here – do you care if your fruit and/or vegetables are made in China? If it’s frozen and if it is certified, then maybe it doesn’t matter. I guess this is why “buy local” has become so big in the media recently.
Update: My friend Dan pointed me to Wikipedia which notes, “The United States is the world’s second-largest producer of spinach, with 3% of world output, following China (PRC), which accounts for 85% of output.” Not sure that matters for this conversation but interesting nonetheless.
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