
Private Chef Divya Butani explains how eating seasonal produce can benefit you and your family.
We adjust our wardrobe, make-up and accessories for what’s in season, but we less often think about adjusting our diet according to the weather. Today’s industrialised food systems produce the same fruits and vegetables all-year round, which is in stark contrast to how they are grown naturally. Here are Chef Divya’s reasons on why we should take Mother Nature’s lead.
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Seasonal Eating Is More Nutritious
When we purchase imported fruits and vegetables from the supermarket, they are likely to have been stored for weeks, months or sometimes even a year before we consume them. For example, apples grown in the Northern Hemisphere are picked in the autumn and placed in controlled atmosphere storage facilities using a commercial biopesticide called 1-MCP. This biopesticide slows down the ripening process and keeps the apples in good condition for over a year. This industrialised food ‘cold chain’ is how most of our produce is stored until we purchase from stores.
Today’s technology allows cold storage systems in industrialised food systems are high quality, and while MCP has not shown adverse effects on human health, storing fresh produce for more than a year still results in a decrease in nutritional value as antioxidant activity decreases. Studies show that one would need to consume a minimum of two apples stored for six months or more to fully obtain the health benefits provided by one freshly picked apple.
When you purchase and eat in-season produce from local farmers’ markets, you’re maximising the nutritional value of the produce because it has been grown and eaten within a shorter span of time. It’s really about the journey.
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Seasonal Eating Can Boost Your Immunity
Generally, the nutritional content of fresh fruit and vegetables decreases significantly after it has been harvested. A study by The University of California shows vegetables can lose up to 55% of vitamin C within a week, and some varieties of spinach can lose 90% of their vitamin C value 24 hours after harvest.
There have been several studies on how storage conditions affect vitamin C levels in fresh produce, which determined that traditional preservation processes have a limited impact compared to that of the packaging process and storage conditions.
For example, there was a 40% decrease in vitamin C levels in green beans after a 10-minute high-pressure treatment and pasteurisation process. Moreover, almost all vitamin C was lost after days of cold storage at 10℃. The oxygen trapped within the green beans and the surface of the pouches also contributed to this significant loss, which shows that the packaging process significantly affects its retention.
Purchasing fresh ingredients directly from the markets, without the treatment and storage processes, can retain vitamin value and maximise the benefits of consuming fresh produce. The storage of fresh produce in our homes also plays an important role in retaining the wholesome benefits of fresh produce.
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Seasonal Eating Tastes Better
The taste and quality of seasonal produce even tastes better because it’s fully ripe, whereas most produce kept for storage are picked before they’re ripe to prolong shelf-life.
Eating autumn apples tend to be more flavourful and crispy, while those out of season aren’t as sweet (the same goes for tomatoes). Fresh, in-season tomatoes are much juicier, richer and sweeter compared to the watery, bland ones which are picked out of season.
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Seasonal Eating Is Better For The Environment and Reduces Waste
The transportation needed to-and-from cold storage facilities through the ‘cold chain’ is estimated to be responsible for 216 Mt CO₂ eq into the atmosphere (that’s about 6.5x the total carbon emissions of Hong Kong in 2022). However, this doesn’t account for global food loss due to lack of coverage by cold chains, or insufficient cold chains. The approximate emissions released when taking these losses into account is equivalent to 1004 Mt CO₂ eq.
Additionally, almost 12% of food produced globally is lost due to insufficient cold storage food chains, which could feed up to 950 million people a year. By purchasing seasonal produce, you’re reducing the demand for the number of facilities needed to preserve and store produce beyond its harvest date.
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Seasonal Eating Supports Local Economy
95% of food in Hong Kong is imported, making the Hong Kong economy heavily reliant on packaged foods and limiting our exposure to local seasonal varieties. What’s more is that supermarkets like Wellcome and ParknShop dominate over 70% of the grocery sector and supply an abundance of overpriced imported foods.
However, the Hong Kong territory still has over 2,400 farms, which employ 4,400 farmers and workers. We also have hundreds of local markets that employ thousands of people across the city. If we were to opt for local seasonal produce, there are still plenty of options. Click here for a list of all the farms that we can purchase produce from.
Purchasing local produce means you’re supporting many of these small businesses and farms. More importantly, you’re providing you and your family with an opportunity to learn about seasonal eating and benefit from it. Learn more about seasonal crops and how to select them here.