WHY THIS BRAND?

  • 100% organic
  • Glass jars (vs. cans lined with BPA-laden plastic)
  • No hybridized tomatoes

Scroll down to learn more.

Not only are Jovial's products 100% organic and gluten free, but their tomatoes are packaged in glass jars  (vs. cans lined with BPA-laden plastic). It is particularly important that you avoid buying canned tomatoes because tomatoes are highly acidic and therefore have a much higher risk of drawing out BPA and other chemicals from the can's lining and leaching into your food (scroll down to see why BPA is so harmful). 

Additionally, Jovial tomatoes are some of the best tasting tomatoes around, because they take great care in how the tomatoes are grown, sorted, and processed.  Jovial only uses tomatoes at the perfect stage of ripening, carefully sorting out tomatoes by hand  vs. using hybrid tomatoes, which are hybridized to turn red all at the same time for ease of harvest.  These are the deep red tomatoes you find at the grocery store and also typically used in jarred tomato sauce products (even in organic ones).  These hybrid tomatoes lack flavor, sweetness, and most importantly nutrition. 

Jovial tomatoes are sorted multiple times – once by hand, once at the fields, and then two more times during packing. What’s more, the tomatoes are grown only by small organic local farmers. Each farm is just a few acres in size, family owned, and a stone’s throw from the jarring facility.

Here’s how the fully and naturally ripened tomatoes are processed, according to Jovial:

The tomatoes are sorted upon arrival at the canning facility, then thoroughly washed and gently steamed to remove the peels. We take one last look at them, again sorting out the tomatoes that we do not like by hand. From there, we either crush the tomatoes, cut them in dices, or pack them whole. The process is very similar to what you would do at home, but with the help of machinery. During the crushing and dicing, fresh juices are collected and gently cooked down to a delicious puree that is packed with the tomatoes. This puree is the key to a fantastic finished product because if we packed the whole or diced tomato pieces in the straight juice, they would be watery and you would have to cook them for a long time. Our homemade puree not only prevents waste, it gives your tomato product a wonderfully flavorful base that will save you time in the kitchen (1).

 

CHOOSE GLASS; AVOID BPA CHEMICALS

Bisphenol-A (BPA), a chemical used to coat the lining of cans and most plastic products,  can leach into foods and drinks via plastic containers, Tupperware, bottles, and even metal cans are lined with BPA-laden plastics.  Most of us know that BPA can be harmful to your health (with children being most susceptible to the harmful effects of BPA chemicals), but do you know why?  (source).

  • Hormonal Disruption

  • Reproductive Harm

  • Increased Risk of Certain Cancers

  • Malformation of Organs in Children

  • Miscarriage Risk

  • Sperm Defects

  • Increased Risk of Mental Disabilities in Babies.

BPA exposure is widespread, because we use plastics so ubiquitously (especially around our food) and BPA is present in most of them. A survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control tested over twenty-five hundred urine samples and found detectable levels of BPA in 93% of people older than 6 years old.  The best way to reduce BPA exposure is to stop using all plastic containers to store food and bottles to feed your baby (even those that are BPA-free still contain harmful chemicals), avoid buying food that comes in plastics or cans, and comprehensively switch over to glass and/or stainless steel.  

If you are looking to switch to glass storage containers, I have hand selected my favorite ones here.