juntosPreservativo doesn't mean preservative
Ask whether the jam has preservativos and the stallholder will wonder what kind of jam you think it is.
Preservativo comes from preservar (to protect), and what it protects against is pregnancy and infection. It's the everyday word for a condom, used on packets, in pharmacies and in health campaigns, so there's no context where it quietly means preservative.
On food labels in Latin America, the word is conservadores: sin conservadores, sin conservadores artificiales. In Spain it's conservantes. Both come from conservar, to keep. Look for it near the ingredientes.
At a market, the natural way to ask uses llevar, the verb for what goes into food: ¿Esto lleva conservadores? Even simpler, ¿Es casera? (is it homemade?) gets you the answer without the word at all.
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Also worth knowing
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ¿Esto lleva conservadores? | Does this have preservatives in it? |
| Es casera, sin conservadores. | It's homemade, no preservatives. |
| ¿Qué ingredientes lleva? | What's in it? |
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What does preservativo mean in Spanish?
A condom. It is the standard, neutral word for one, which is why asking whether food has preservativos gets a startled look.
How do you say preservatives in Spanish?
Conservadores in Mexico and much of Latin America, conservantes in Spain. Labels often say sin conservadores (no preservatives).
How do you ask if food has preservatives?
¿Tiene conservadores? or ¿Esto lleva conservadores? Llevar is the verb people use for what goes into food.
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