Stripping off plastic makes food naked?

‘Food in the nude’ should ideally conjure up images of unclad masticators, not unclad comestibles. But for those brought up in the era of supermarkets rather than bare essentials garnered from farms and kitchen gardens, that allusion is far from obvious. After all, for the prepacked generation, the wisecrack, ‘Why did the tomato blush? Because it saw the salad dressing’, is probably a truism.

The current supermarket campaigns in the west captioned ‘Nude food’ and ‘Nude zones’ are clearly aimed at those who think that provisions naturally come encased in layers of plastic. Therefore, the ecologically mandated stripping off (of plastic) before peeling or cleaning presumably renders those items naked. Given the increasing public unfamiliarity with vegetables and meats in the raw, so to speak, provender stores may also soon resort to signs saying, “The contents of this shelf are suitable for viewing by audiences of all ages.”

Luckily, for most Indians, shrink-wrapping grains, vegetables and meats are still not the norm. We are quite used to unabashedly viewing our foodstuff au naturel, that too with entire families in tow. This refreshingly lack of prudishness towards produce must be preserved. We cannot allow future generations to believe that groceries must be totally swaddled, even if the intention is to ensure their purity.