Thursday, April 10, 2008
Review: PAM Professional
I received a sample of PAM Professional cooking spray from the PR firm for the product (made by ConAgra). They say that it was originally aimed at a professional market and is a patented blend of oils that work without residue on cookware. It certainly seems to work. For example, I used it to coat a roasting pan that went into the oven for about an hour, and cleanup was relatively easy - no baked on brown goop.
I asked about the blend of oils and whether there was any chemical or biotech modification of the ingredients. The PR firm wrote back with the following:
So the "we can't" translates into "we don't want to." I could, in theory, go to the US Patent and Trademark Office and check records for ConAgra, but the would likely have thousands of patents, and I don't have time to wade through them. So I have to consider this answer to be evasion, and I noticed that the PR people did not say that there were no genetic or chemical modifications of the oils in the mix. If I'm not allowed to know what I'm using in my food, then I'm simply not going to use it or recommend it. Until food companies are willing to be more forthcoming about what they want us to ingest, I think it would make sense to do business with other firms.
There are commercially available oil sprayers that are refillable and that don't need propellants. If you have the need for a high heat cooking spray, I'd suggest using one of these with something like avocado oil, that has a high smoking point as shown in this handy table from CookingForEngineers.com.
I asked about the blend of oils and whether there was any chemical or biotech modification of the ingredients. The PR firm wrote back with the following:
PAM Professional was originally created for restaurant environments, so it has a different formulation than the other PAM varieties. It is designed to perform on cookware at high heat (such as with sautéing and stir-frying).Now just hold on a minute. The product is patented but they can't discuss the differences? A company can only patent a product or process if it completely discloses the methods it is using. That is simply part of the patent process (and given that I write regularly about intellectual property and the patent business, I'm on pretty comfortable ground here).
We can't talk about the exact differences, but the product has a different formulation than the other PAM varieties.
So the "we can't" translates into "we don't want to." I could, in theory, go to the US Patent and Trademark Office and check records for ConAgra, but the would likely have thousands of patents, and I don't have time to wade through them. So I have to consider this answer to be evasion, and I noticed that the PR people did not say that there were no genetic or chemical modifications of the oils in the mix. If I'm not allowed to know what I'm using in my food, then I'm simply not going to use it or recommend it. Until food companies are willing to be more forthcoming about what they want us to ingest, I think it would make sense to do business with other firms.
There are commercially available oil sprayers that are refillable and that don't need propellants. If you have the need for a high heat cooking spray, I'd suggest using one of these with something like avocado oil, that has a high smoking point as shown in this handy table from CookingForEngineers.com.
Labels: avocado, cooking spray, oils
