Tzatziki sauce, typical of Greek cuisine, is also popular in Italy. It is easy to prepare at home, but even easier is to buy it ready-made. Too bad that products to avoid are lurking in supermarkets, with ingredients unrelated to the original Greek recipe, such as sugar, palm fat, egg, as well as preservative additives and thickeners. We tracked and compared 4 of them that are easy to find in supermarkets and on retail ecommerce platforms.
Zorbas, the tzatziki sauce with palm fat
The worst product comes right out of Greece, home of the fresh, sour sauce. Tzatziki Zorbas is more than one-third (34.5 percent) of a shoddy ‘yogurt sauce‘ composed of skim milk powder, milk protein, fully hydrogenated vegetable fat (from palm), milk enzymes, modified corn starch, and gelatin. An abomination.
Contains 4 additives. Among these, to be avoided is sodium benzoate (E211), a preservative widely used in food products (but banned in organic), so much so that it easily causes the ADI (acceptable daily intake) of 6 mg per kg body weight (mg/Kg pc) to be exceeded.
Hypersensitivity and allergy reactions (asthma, itching, redness) result in connection with its consumption. This preservative is also suspected of promoting hyperactivity in children, either alone or in combination with some azo dyes.
Also not recommended are the two thickeners/emulsifiers xanthan gum (E415) and guar gum (E412), which can cause gastrointestinal discomfort, such as bloating, flatulence, and laxative effect, if consumed heavily or in combination.
The tzatziki dressing in a manner of speaking.
Tzatziki salad dressing has very little to do with the typical Greek dressing. This German-made condiment mixes canola oil with vinegar and onion with two tzatziki ingredients, namely pasteurized skim yogurt (11 percent) and cucumbers.
Spanish tzatziki with additives
The recipe for tzatziki made in Spain by Sun & Vegs is close to the traditional one, but resorts to additives. Greek yogurt amounts to 70 percent of the product and is made from milk, cream, milk protein and milk enzymes. The cucumbers are 14%, the oil is olive, and spearmint (0.2%) is added. In addition to sugar, salt and pepper, three additives are present. Citric acid, potassium sorbate and the aforementioned xanthan gum for thickening purposes.
Less stringent is the labeling, evidently little care taken by the operator marketing it in Italy. Instead of ‘develop‘ (your imagination), the package reads ‘svillupa‘.
Organic Tzatziki Kourellas, the top
In the Kourellas organic tzatziki sauce, the recipe is simple, well-edited and free of additives. After all, organic products are not expected to use the most problematic additives. And in this case there are none at all. The list includes Greek yogurt, (pasteurized cow’s milk, cream, live and active cultures L. bulgaricus, S. thermophilus, L. acidophilus, Bifidus, L. casei), cucumber 19.6 percent, sea salt, garlic, and vinegar.
The organic tzatziki sauce from Kourellas (the first organic dairy founded in Greece in 1996) is the most expensive in the sample. Unfortunately, in all food sectors, the marketing of low-cost foods that are well advertised but made with low-quality raw materials and an abundance of additives has drugged the market. Even those with spending capacity sometimes prefer to invest in designer plastic shoes instead of healthy and sustainable food.
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
