Is it significantly better to use fresh garlic over a jar of clean, organic, minced and preservative free garlic?

QUESTION:

Is it significantly better to use fresh garlic over a jar of clean, organic, minced and preservative free garlic? Are the health benefits majorly better? Spiral Organics do a jar of minced garlic with ingredients listed as “organic garlic (90%), organic vinegar”. Would this be okay to use?

ANSWER:

I will preface this by saying that I haven’t conducted a detail review of minced garlic to date. I personally prefer to use fresh garlic cloves, or if I want a more convenient option, I will use powder over minced garlic (but then you lose the punchiness). Nothing tastes better than fresh garlic in my opinion.

Most of the time, it is very hard to find pre minced garlic that does not come with additives (usually citric acid at a minimum). Often manufacturers of minced garlic will use stabilisation techniques that include pasteurising the garlic. That is, they heat it to ensure any micro-organisms are killed. I prefer my garlic not pasteurised.

The other big question I would have is where is the garlic sourced from originally. Imported garlic is often fumigated with methyl bromide and bleached. For me there are too many unknowns, so I prefer to use fresh garlic.

I have taken a look at the Spiral Organics option here and it states that the garlic is imported. I personally wouldn’t buy it. Hope that helps!