Sprays for cleaning and grooming have been around for decades. Now, the same technology is being used in cooking.
During the past two years, more than 150 spray-on food products have hit the market, providing flavor without a lot of calories.
The sprays come in a variety of flavors, and many have no calories, fat nor carbs. Not only are the ingredients more waistline-friendly, they make portion control easier.
Grace Parisi of Food & Wine magazine brought several of the most buzz-worthy by The Early Show Tuesday.
Incidentally, these sprays are also great for kids and pets, since they can be used to disguise or enhance flavor.
To watch the segment, click here.
Among those Parisi mentioned:
Butter-like spray: Companies such as Parkay and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter are the leaders in this category.Salad spritzers: Wishbone just came out with this line. Each spray is only one calorie. Parisi feels that these taste similar to bottled dressings, but you get a little less "authentic" taste b/c you don't get the bits of herbs that you would find in a bottle dressing.Flavor Sprays by David Burke: This is a line created by David Burke and is for dieters who crave flavor. Flavors include butter, root beer, chocolate fudge, etc.Cooking spray: Pam is one of the most famous ones but they are coming out with an organic line that features fewer chemicals (the ones needed for an aerosol spray); as well as many other competitor brands of cooking sprays. Parisi finds these lines to be helpful when cooking. The organic Pam series will sell for 50 cents more than traditional Pam spray. Innovative Candy Concepts: This line was created to make kids enjoy eating veggies. Parisi wouldn't suggest this. She thinks it's better for you to experiment with different cooking methods rather than coat veggies with this candy-like spray.