Shelf life
Food producers do this to increase the shelf life of canned fruit; there’s a reason it can be kept for so much longer! You should especially beware of the words ‘in syrup’, since you can be sure the sugar levels are exorbitantly high in those cans. The same goes for dried fruit: lots of vitamins (especially vitamin C) are lost because the fruit dries at high temperatures. Plus, a considerable amount of sugar is added to this as well to make sure the fruit still tastes sweet when it’s dry. Of course, you don’t have to avoid these products completely, but if you want to reduce your sugar intake, you’re much better off buying fresh fruit!
Chemicals
Besides the rather shocking sugar contents of canned fruit, there’s something else we’d rather not know: the chemicals that go into canned fruit. Have you ever noticed how clean canned mandarins or clementines are? Fresh mandarins contain a thin skin and white threads which we can never fully remove with our hands. Yet, canned mandarins are completely clean. This is because of the chemical sodium hydroxide. This corrosive substance eats away the white threads, but the fruit isn’t in the solution long enough to dissolve completely. Afterwards, the fruit is doused with hydrochloric acid. This neutralises the sodium hydroxide and makes the fruit edible.
Source: Voedingscentrum | Image: Alibaba