Category/Vegetables/Spinachs

The category Spinach describes the leaves of the plant Spinacia oleracea. These can be either fresh, or after storage using preservation techniques by canning, freezing, or dehydration. It may be eaten cooked or raw, and the taste differs considerably.

The category comprises the leaves that are not or minimally processed, with some added ingredients.

Super-categories

The super (parent) categories of Spinach are:

• Leaf vegetables;
• etc.

Sub-categories

• Canned spinachs for Spinachs in glass pots and cans;
• Frozen spinach leaves for frozen Spinach, but with leaves still whole;
• Frozen chopped spinachs for frozen Spinach where the leaves a finely cut;
• Fresh spinachs for fresh Spinach;
• Young spinach leaves for you fresh Spinach, which can be eaten as salad;

In France one can buy fresh winter spinach, but that is noted on packages and can only be recognised by the shape of the leaves (large, crumpled). No category for this as yet;

The Frozen spinachs category could be divided in frozen as a single block or as cubes.

The Canned spinachs category can be divided in two subcategories: plain (no added ingredients) and prepared (some ingredients added, but not cream). It is not directly clear from the packaging what product belongs to what subcategory. So a division seems not in place.

The Cooked Spinachs category has been commented out, as there are no products for this category. However all canned and frozen spinachs seem to be blanched, but this is hard to find on the packaging.

Related categories

The ingredient Spinach occurs in some 1900 categories. Several of these categories highlight spinach:

• Cannelloni with goat cheese and spinach;
• Cannelloni with ricotta and spinach;
• Goat cheese and spinach tart;
• Lasagne with goat cheese and spinach;
• Salmon and spinach lasagna;
• Ravioli with ricotta and spinach;
• Spinach with cream sauce for Spinach with cream. Often (only?) frozen;
• Mashed spinachs - potato with spinach;

Ingredients

Required ingredients

The following single ingredient is required for products in this category:

• spinach

Optional ingredients

• Salt - Most Canned Spinachs have salt added.
• Water - Most Canned Spinachs have water added.

Disallowed ingredients

Any product that contains other ingredients, should be listed in another category:

• Dairy - any product that has this ingredient should be moved to the category Spinach with cream sauce.

Production process/labels

not yet looked at

Nutritional information

Fresh spinachs

	min	10%	med	90%	max
Energy (kJ/100g)
Fat (%)	0	0	0.5	0.6	1
Saturated fat (%)	0	0	0.1	0.138	0.5
Carbohydrates (%)	0	0.3	1	3.53	4.15
Sugars (%)	0	0	0.33	0.7	1.5
Fiber (%)	0.9	1.6	2.2	2.5	3.6
Proteins (%)	1	1.8	2.77	3.3	5
Salt (%)	0	0.03	0.17	0.25	0.35
Fruit (%)			100

Quality Monitoring

• Single ingredient check:
  • Young spinach leaves should only contain the ingredient Spinach;
  • Fresh spinachs should only contain the ingredient Spinach;
• Dairy check - for Spinach with cream sauce, which has been classified as Spinachs as well;
• Opposites:
  • Frozen spinach leaves and Frozen chopped spinachs should not be assigned simultaneously;
• Nutritional values envelope - none defined yet;

Last cleanup by hand on 7 sep 2024.

Sales format

Spinach is sold by:

• package - for frozen Spinach or pre-packed in the vegetables aisles;
• weight - in the bulk vegetable aisles;

Issues

• Are some Canned spinachs and Frozen spinachs also (pre-)cooked)?
• Should Canned spinachs be moved to Prepared spinachs? There are often other ingredients than just Spinach.

References

• Spinach@wikipedia;
• Spinach@wiktionary;
• Spinach@wikidata;