Marmite And Peanutbutter

[JiveTalker]

Should they be kept in the fridge or not? I'd never keep them in the fridge back home, but room temperature is a lot hotter here.

I've tried both. I prefer out the fridge, but they both get a little liquid in consistency.

[newcomer01]

Never had any problem like that with Vegemite or Marmite (When I can't get the real deal). I just keep them in the fridge for convenience. Don't think it makes any difference. I went and checked the Marmite & Vegemite jars and there was nothing on there that said to refrigerate after opening.

Could be just your current jar.

[Ulysses G.]

Peanut butter should be refrigerated after opening. It produces some kind of cancer causing chemical otherwise.

[lannaman]

All 3 should be kept in the fridge. I had a jar of vegemite that went mouldy kept outside. I have kept peanut butter outside but reading the previous post about cancer the remainder will be ditched and a new pot put in the fridge. Marmite becomes very liquified outside and the new style upside down dispenser makes a hel_l of a mess! Designed for the UK!

[mackayae]

I keep them in the fridge, but let them sit at room temperature before using; it's easier to spread. I spread the marmite on first when making a peanut butter and marmite sandwich.

[bojo]

A friend of mine gave me a huge tub of delicious marmite at least 5 years ago, I dusted it off the other day (loadsa dust in my fridge!) and tried it. Perfect.

However, re- health warnings, I'm paranoid now, could be time to chuck it out.

Regards Bojo

[cathyy]

Peanut butter should be refrigerated after opening. It produces some kind of cancer causing chemical otherwise.

Please specify just how unrefrigerated peanut butter can generate a carcinogen from the ingredients present, and provide a link to a reputable medical site stating so.

Peanut better is peanuts, oil, salt, and sometimes a bit of sugar. I've never put it in the refrigerator in my life, nor did my mother or grandmother. It doesn't spoil as far as I have ever noticed. "Natural" peanut butters are sometimes better kept in the refrigerator because the oil rises and separates out if you don't stir it very thoroughly every day. Then they are impossible to spread without tearing up the bread, though.

[Ulysses G.]

Why peanut butter can cause cancer:

Unfortunately a mold commonly winds up growing on peanut butter. This fungus Aspergillus flavus releases a cancer causing metabolic product (mycotoxin) called aflatoxin B1, which is a officially recognized carcinogen (cancer causing compound). Workers around peanuts even have to wear protection because of the health hazard. It is common knowledge that farmers and animals around peanuts have increased liver cancer.

http://www.bodybuildingweb.net/blog/peanut-butter-causes-cancer/

There is LOTS of information on this topic. This is just the first thing that I saw. You can not see or taste the mold.

[cathyy]

That's not a medical website. This is: National Institute of Health

So that you don't have to click and read, it says that peanuts and peanut butter are safe. It mentions the extra testing done regularly on peanuts and peanut butter to ensure that any contamination with aflatoxin is minimal. It can't be eliminated because it is naturally occurring on the peanuts, as well as on walnuts, pecans, corn, and wheat. You gonna stop eating those as well because they too will have some negligible level of contamination?

[Jingthing]

I have always refrigerated peanut butter after opening, all my life.

Jif says this:

How long can I keep Jif on my shelf?

Unopened and stored in a cool dry area, Jif will last for about 2 years. After opening, you can keep it about three months on the pantry shelf.

Do I need to refrigerate Jif?

In the first three months after opening, Jif doesn't require refrigeration. If your family doesn't gobble Jif up by then, you may want to refrigerate the peanut butter to help prevent flavor loss.

Edited August 2, 2009 by Jingthing

[Ulysses G.]

It mentions the extra testing done regularly on peanuts and peanut butter to ensure that any contamination with aflatoxin is minimal. It can't be eliminated because it is naturally occurring on the peanuts, as well as on walnuts, pecans, corn, and wheat. You gonna stop eating those as well because they too will have some negligible level of contamination?

They are not ground up and put in a jar which is not sealed or refrigerated or they would all spoil quickly - especially in this hot weather. The aflatoxin may well be "minimal" when it is sealed in a bottle, but it starts to grow when the seal is broken. That is why it needs to be refrigerated.

Mixing peanut buttter with trans-fats seems to slow the growth of the aflatoxin, but trans-fats are terrible for the human body.

Aflatoxin in peanut butter

PROMEC Unit, Medical Research Council, PO Box 19070,

Tygerberg, 7505 South Africa; tel. (021) 938-0290.

Concerned about your health and peanut butter? The Medical research council gives the lowdown linking quality of peanut butter with aflatoxin and cancer of the liver. Rigorous quality control testing needs to be in place if peanut butter sandwiches are to continue to be provided as a nutritional supplement to school children. Food safety is one of the democratic rights of a healthy nation and should be fostered at all costs.

During May 2001 several reports appeared in the news media in South Africa about the "poison in the peanuts". These related to high levels of aflatoxin that were allegedly found in peanut butter given to school children in the Eastern Cape under the Primary Schools Nutrition Programme (PSNP). The PROMEC Unit of the South African Medical Research Council (MRC), an internationally recognised centre of excellence on toxins produced by fungi (mycotoxins), including aflatoxin, decided to prepare this Policy Brief in order to clarify the issue and to emphasise the serious health implications of supplementing the diet of school children with peanut butter containing aflatoxin.

http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2001/august/peanut.htm

Edited August 3, 2009 by Ulysses G.

[zzaa09]

Peanut butter should be refrigerated after opening. It produces some kind of cancer causing chemical otherwise.

Certainly depends on the peanut butter. If it remains true to the idea of 'peanut butter' - real peanut butter - peanuts and salt....most definitely is perishable. As most of the populations that take a invented product considered to be peanut butter - based on emulsifiers, synthetic and toxic agents, artificial colouring, and all those good things that modern developed cultures consume - has a room temperature shelf-life of a hundred years, because there is nothing real to go off.

[cathyy]

Certainly depends on the peanut butter. If it remains true to the idea of 'peanut butter' - real peanut butter - peanuts and salt....most definitely is perishable. As most of the populations that take a invented product considered to be peanut butter - based on emulsifiers, synthetic and toxic agents, artificial colouring, and all those good things that modern developed cultures consume - has a room temperature shelf-life of a hundred years, because there is nothing real to go off.

Okay, from the ingredients on the Skippy jar in my unrefrigerated cabinet: Peanuts, sugar, salt, soybean oil. Just which one of these substances do you object to? Peanut butter is one of the few mass market convenience foods that doesn't have a lot of additives. You don't have to refrigerate peanuts, sugar, salt, or oil; why would you need to refrigerate a combination of those? Also note that the label on the jar does not say it needs to be refrigerated. Products requiring refrigeration are labelled as such, perhaps in small letters someplace, but it's on there.

Edited August 3, 2009 by cathyy

[Ulysses G.]

You do not bother to mention that the soybean oil is hydrogonated which means trans-fats and it is pretty well known is very unnatural and is unhealthy for human beings.

Skippy does not tell you to refrigerate peanut butter because it has a long shelf life without refrigeration. However, it is possible that you might end up with cancer sometime in the future if you do not protect yourself.

[cathyy]

There is so little soybean oil it isn't really even listed as an ingredient, but simply says "may contain soybean oil" for those who may be allergic to soy. It also doesn't say hydrogenated soybean oil, which means that it isn't hydrogenated. I've been eating unrefrigerated peanut butter for almost 55 years now. Given the usual 20-year delay in cancer development, I'd have had it by now if peanut butter was carcinogenic. You can believe the sky is falling, but please don't try to convince other people.

[Ulysses G.]

I guess that you think that cigarettes do not cause cancer because some smokers do not ever get it - using that logic. However, if you Google either subject, you will see that, a lot of scientists and Medical professionals think that you are dead wrong.

By the way, if you are correct about no more hydrogenated oils in commercial peanut butter, it is so recent that I can not find anything about it on the internet. It was in there for many years.

PEANUT BUTTER

WITH NO TRANS FATS

Diana Mirkin

Most of the major brands of peanut butter contain partially hydrogenated oils, which we recommend that you avoid (see report #N185.) Partially hydrogenated oils are solid at room temperature, so the peanut butter manufacturers use them to keep the oil from separating and to give their products a very long shelf life. They don't have to add very much partially hydrogenated oil, but it is there – look at the list of ingredients. They try to fool you because if the amount is less than .5 grams per serving, they can say "0 grams of trans fats" or "no trans fats." A serving of peanut butter is two tablespoons -- so they can put as much as 8 grams of trans fats in a 16-ounce jar and still attach a label that says "No Trans Fats"!.

If you think it's important to avoid trans fats, as we do, you will read the list of ingredients on every processed food you buy and put back any that include the words "partially hydrogenated" or "hydrogenated". For most peanut butter lovers, that meant a trip to a specialty store to get freshly-ground peanut butter or one of the smaller brands that contain only peanuts (and that's still a perfectly good solution.)

http://www.drmirkin.com/nutrition/N242.html

[Jingthing]

American peanut butters that are labeled NO TRANS FATS actually have trans fats. This is well known. They are able to legally label it that way based on the total amount of trans fats in the jar even though there are still trans fats in each serving. The only commercial peanut without trans fats are the ones that are only peanuts or peanuts and salt and have a large pool of OIL on the top when you open it.

[gennisis]

Peanut butter should be refrigerated after opening. It produces some kind of cancer causing chemical otherwise.

Is there ANYTHING left that we can eat without getting cancer?????

[Ulysses G.]

A customer just told me that Elvis really died from cancerous peanut butter.

[cathyy]

Ah, so now it's the transfats, not the aflatoxin, as the reason to avoid eating peanut butter? I think you lost the original argument, and are now grasping at straws for reasons to support not eating peanut butter.

[NanaFoods]

One can always make your own peanut butter.

Its really quite easy, and you'll know exactly what's in it.

Try this:

Take a 450gm Bag of Tesco "Peeled Peanut" - and roast them in your oven at about 160 degrees C. for about 30 minutes, more or less to get them to look like the first pic below (for some reason, it appears to show up as the 2nd pic).

In a food processor, add the roasted peanuts, 3/4 ts salt, 1/4 cup peanut oil, and 1-2 teaspoons each of brown sugar and honey (depending on how sweet you like it). Process on maximum for about 3 minutes or so, until you can achieve a smooth consistency.

Refrigerate for 24-hours (it takes this long to fully stiffen up) (see pics)

Total cost 500gm of peanut butter: about 50 baht and a little time.

**********************************

Next, try making a delicious PB, Banana & Chocolate pie:

Just need a Graham cracker crust, 2 fresh bananas sliced into the bottom, covered with PB pudding, and topped with dark chocolate curls.

You can get the crust, bananas, and chocolate - the tougher part is the PB pudding.

Here it is:

Ingredients

1/2 c Sugar

3.5 Tb Cornstarch

1/4 ts Salt

1 c Milk (whole)

1 c Cream (heavy or whipping)

3 Egg yolks, beaten

3/4 c Peanut Butter, creamy

1 ts Vanilla extract, pure

Instructions

Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium-size heavy saucepan; stir well to break up any clumps of cornstarch. Whisk in milk and cream.

Bring to a boil over medium-low to medium heat, whisking constantly. Boil, whisking constantly, 1-minute. Temper the egg yolks by adding a few tablespoons of hot pudding to the yolks in their prep bowl and whisk well. Then add about ½-cup more pudding to the yolks, and whisk more. Pour the tempered yolks into the saucepot with the bulk of the pudding, and whisk well. Heat about 1-2 more minutes to thicken, then remove from heat. Add peanut butter and vanilla, whisking until smooth. Cover, set aside, and keep warm.

Slice 2 bananas into the bottom of graham crust, distributing the slices evenly around the bottom of the crust. Pour the peanut butter pudding over the bananas to cover completely. Refrigerate until pudding is set and thoroughly chilled.

When the pie is chilled and set, shave chocolate curls from a block of dark chocolate onto the top of the pie before serving. Enjoy. Super delicious.

Edited August 5, 2009 by ChefHeat

[Ulysses G.]

Ah, so now it's the transfats, not the aflatoxin, as the reason to avoid eating peanut butter? I think you lost the original argument, and are now grasping at straws for reasons to support not eating peanut butter.

Everyone else thinks you lost both arguments.

[sunholidaysun1]

Just bought a 250gr jar of Marmite from the Rimping supermarket in Chiang Mai - 384bht WOW

I hope it lasts a long time but I doubt it

As for keeping marmite and peanut butter refridgerated after opening - I dont normally but have just put both in the fridge.