this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2026
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me_irl
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Prove it
Bit aggressive, Pat
Perhaps, but it got results.
https://thehamandcheeseco.com/blogs/journal/olives
Neat! Though I'd have to say that they're doing a bit more than just adding color.
For sure! It's also preservation technique.
It has the unfortunate side effect of making the olives somewhat tasteless compared to their possible result.
I say this as someone who finds excuses to eat olives in just about any form (including these). Anchovy stuffed being my favorite at the moment.
I despise anchovies, so I'll have to skip those. I don't like the feta cheese ones either, but I love about every other kind I've had and always have multiple kinds on hand.
I love the highschool chemistry panic over the caustic soda, and just glazing over "ferrous glucanate" added to keep the color. Ferrous glucanate sounds like iron(III) bound up ina glucose structure!? Nasty
Ferrous gluconate is prescribed for anemia (ferrous sulfate is the most common in multivitamins). You could go to any number of stores close to you and find it in the supplements section.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9818626/
And yeah, lye is used in many traditional food preservation and preparation techniques.
Chemistry aside, what I takeaway is that this is a wild process for a relatively tasteless product (compared to traditionally processed olives).
Agreed, I'll have my olives brined thanks.
So iron supplements are typically ferrous not ferric? I thought the body processed iron (ii) more easily because of its lower oxidation state but that was all speculation until right now. My blood clots too well if anything, I've never needed supplemental iron.
I think you got your suffixes reversed there!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrous
Well well well, how the turn tables.