Ingredient Guide

Grocery shopping can be an overwhelming and confusing process, and without some guidance, it can be difficult to know which ingredients to purchase.

We created this ingredient guide so that as you and your clients prepare recipes, you can feel confident that your culinary creations maximize nutrition and palatability. This guide was designed to be flexible to work at any grocery store and for any budget.

Overall, choose natural ingredients as much as possible – ingredients that you immediately recognize when you read them. Not all additive “chemical” ingredients are bad per say, it’s just that there are so many that it can be hard to remember which ones are okay and which ones to avoid; limiting them overall makes shopping and protecting your health a little easier.

If you want some guidance on chemical additives, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has published a comprehensive guide to food additives. While we cannot guarantee their sources or research, we have not found another list of this kind.

We base our decisions on sustainability, environmentally friendly practices, humane animal treatment, health, and palatability.