The autonomous non-profit organization Russian Quality System (Roskachestvo) is a national monitoring system that carries out independent research on the quality of goods on the shelves of Russian stores and assigns the Quality Mark to the best Russian products.
This article is devoted to the consideration of various brands of mayonnaise, in particular those that have earned the recognition of many thousands of people in the Russian Federation.
Irreplaceable product
Mayonnaise has long been a part of urban life. This is a quick sauce, always ready to eat. It saves in difficult situations, when guests may suddenly come in or there is nothing else at hand for a bite to eat. He even began to be released in the lean version. Lenten mayonnaise brands “Schedro”, “Ryaba”, “Sloboda” will help believers and even lose weight in difficult moments of lack of pickles. With losing weight, however, everything is more complicated.
As you know, manufacturers do not consider it necessary to produce sugar-free mayonnaise. Manufacturers of mayonnaise sauces are in no hurry to get rid of a high-calorie preservative, since it belongs to the type of natural ones. If this is a matter of principle, you should do the cooking of mayonnaise at home. But how do factories produce real mayonnaise worthy of owning the “Quality Mark”?
Technology
First, choose vegetable oil. The main condition is refined and deodorized. Further, to convert mayonnaise into a homogeneous, thick, creamy emulsion, emulsifiers are added. If we consider the optimal version of quality, then lecithin is used, which is found in egg yolk. However, the use of dried milk derivatives, for example, soya lecithin or whey, is also permitted. As an emulsifier can be a mustard powder, which gives an incredible piquancy to mayonnaise.
In order to prevent delamination during transportation or temperature changes (especially for low- and medium-calorie products), thickeners and stabilizers are added to mayonnaise. Ideal - xanthan and guar gums, starches, locust bean gum. These additives are not needed for high fat mayonnaise.
Preservatives in mayonnaise are citric acid (vinegar) and sugar. Citric acid provides sourness and vinegar aroma, unlike those species in which it is not used. Different brands have their own production technologies. Some manufacturers do not want to spoil their product with acetic acid and prefer to stick to the vector of optimal naturalness and taste.
Risk factors
Dangerous in mayonnaise are acids, dyes and flavorings. If you do not want to risk your health, you can make mayonnaise at home. As it turns out, this is completely uncomplicated. The main advantage of homemade sauce is the freshness of products and confidence in the cooking process. On the counter, we can either trust mayonnaise or not. But let's move on to the realities of today.
Results were expected.
As it turned out, the most popular trademarks of mayonnaise in Russia with a fat content of 67% (Provence) were the following:
- Billa
- Globus
- Baisad;
- Heinz;
- Fine life;
- Mr. Ricco;
- Rioba;
- "Taste";
- "Bouquet";
- "Deli";
- "Everyday";
- “All year round”;
- EZHK;
- "Maheev";
- "Dream of the mistress";
- Moscow Provence;
- Miladora
- "Novosibirsk";
- "Ryaba";
- "Arbor";
- "Oscar";
- "The Village";
- "Sloboda";
- "Skit";
- "What is needed";
- Khabarovsky
- "A thousand lakes."
Among the goods sent for research, 9 were produced under their own brands, and 7 samples acted as the largest regional brands.
Research purchases were carried out at various points of sale in the country. The cities included Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, Kislovodsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk and Saratov.
Quality is beyond praise
According to GOST, mayonnaise is a sauce that contains at least 50 percent fat and 1 percent egg products. These characteristics create a line between mayonnaise and mayonnaise sauce, which may contain at least 15 percent fat. The best mayonnaise is considered "Provence", which contains 67 percent fat.
However, the above samples were selected not simply in accordance with GOST, but according to more stringent standards of the Russian quality system, which resemble an extended version of the requirements of the state standard. The composition of the product is always under scrutiny: one hundred percent naturalness of the components is expected here, which should have a low level of acidity, a stable emulsion and increased density. The standard does not allow the presence of artificial preservatives in mayonnaise brands.
Formula
Thus, high-quality mayonnaise is a mixture of the following ingredients: vegetable oil, eggs and egg products, natural thickeners, mustard products, natural flavors and colors, antioxidants, sugar and salt.
However, according to the deputy head of the quality control organization, Elena Sarattseva, the mandatory technical regulations allow the use of certain artificial ingredients. It turns out that the naturalness of the product lies in its quality, and not in safety.
All of these samples turned out to be quality products without artificial components. In addition, not a single test laboratory found traces of GMOs in the goods presented.
What to watch out for
Roskachestvo restricts the use of unnatural preservatives in Russian mayonnaise, which include:
- sorbic acid and its salts;
- benzoic acid;
- antioxidants (including EDTA);
- vitamins;
- multivitamin premixes;
- complex stabilization systems (i.e. nutritional supplements).
It may seem absurd to include vitamins in this list, because it is believed that our body is of complete benefit to them. As it turned out, these additives reduce the growth of most microorganisms, especially yeast and molds.
Preservatives help to increase the important characteristics of the product - here it is about the shelf life (up to 7-12 months), says Olga Tokmina, head of the Roskachestvo certification body.
Open fight
However, as practice shows, manufacturers often do not think of hiding the use of such additives on product labels, hoping that the target audience will not be aware of this issue. And in fact, how many people think about the dangers of vitamins?
However, the product must be manufactured according to the requirements of the Roskachestvo, which indicate a restriction on the use of any preservatives of artificial origin. Violation of this requirement knocks out 16 samples from the 27 listed mayonnaise brands. “Out of the race” for the title of the top 16 products, as it turned out, include benzoic (E210) or sorbic (E200) acids in their composition.
A pleasant exception was the mayonnaise brand from the manufacturers Every Day, Mr. Ricco, SKIT, Moscow Provence, Miladora, Sloboda, Ryaba, Bouquet, Khabarovsky, Novosibirsk Provence, Heinz.
In addition to the listed research procedures, the presence of heavy metals, radioactive nuclides, toxic elements, pathogenic microorganisms (including salmonella and E. coli) in the composition is analyzed. As a result, all products submitted for testing turned out to be safe, which cannot but rejoice.
"Slim" mayonnaise
Obligatory technical regulation, which provides for the presence of 67 percent fat content in mayonnaise brands, as it turned out during the study, is often not observed. Packages confidently insist that mayonnaise complies with GOST (No. 31761 "Mayonnaise and mayonnaise sauces"), but about half of the samples presented do not meet the standard.
The fact is that manufacturers of mayonnaise brands intentionally reduce the actual amount of fat in comparison with the information stated on the label.
In 13 cases out of 27, manufacturers reduced the percentage of fat content of manufactured products. It turned out that Heinz is a brand of mayonnaise (you can see the product photo below in the article), which is the most “sinful” in this parameter.
Heinz Provence contains only 61 percent fat. Such actions can be regarded as a violation of consumer rights in relation to reliable product information. Therefore, this information was immediately sent to Rospotrebnadzor for consideration.
Expert opinion
According to Ekaterina Nesterova, executive director of the Association of Manufacturers and Consumers of Oil and Fat Products, as a result of laboratory studies, it was found that the largest discrepancies were identified by the mass fraction of fat. The product must clearly meet the requirements and the information stated about it. Unfortunately, a typical consumer is unlikely to be able to detect the difference in the percentage of fats, only a highly qualified taster will be able to navigate here.
Regarding the ban on preservatives, laid down in the standard of Roskachestvo, Catherine responds approvingly, considering him correct. The Executive Director says that today, manufacturers of many brands of mayonnaise have tightened requirements for their products, refusing to use preservatives. Such a turn for the better is regarded as the restoration of a high production culture and the appropriate sanitary conditions necessary for this. It’s no secret, Nesterova says, and the fact that preservatives are used to get rid of pathogenic microorganisms, which, however, are unlikely to appear if the production process is carried out under the necessary conditions: here there are bactericidal lamps, and disinfection of equipment, cleanliness of industrial premises, air, water and so on.
Which brand of mayonnaise is better?
Examined samples were found to be safe products in accordance with established standards. Some products even meet the high quality requirements established by the Roskachestvo regulations. Five domestic-made trademarks received the “Quality Mark”. These include:
- "Skit";
- Mr. Ricco;
- "Ryaba";
- "Bouquet";
- "Sloboda."
The high quality product was the Novosibirsk Provencal mayonnaise.
According to the examination, another 8 items were recognized as quality goods: Selyanochka, Oscar, Fine Life, Globus, Dream of the Mistress, Thousand Lakes, EZHK, Grocery Store.
We hope that the information presented in this article will help you make a choice in the grocery store.