The Big Chill; How Safe Are “Sous-Vide” Refrigerated Foods?
The French, perennial groundbreakers in the world of cuisine, have done it again. They’ve create a divine convenience food. As fresh and tasty as home-cooking and as easy to prepare as canned or frozen products, refrigerated foods, made by the sous-vide (French for “under vacuum”) process, are the latest Gallic rage to hit the United States. The process is so new in this country that few food companies have yet adopted it. Very few restaurants serve food prepared this way, and supermarkets have just begun carrying vacuum-packed refrigerated foods–including everything from pasta and vegetables to fish, chicken and beef. Nonetheless, experts predict that vacuum-refrigerated foods may one day replace canned and frozen items as the mainstay in supermarkets. The reason refrigerated foods may take over the supermarket is simple. They state better and fresher. Vacuum-packed refrigerate foods are spared the extreme cold of frozen foods and intense heat used to process canned foods, both of wh
