What will happen to the world without food additives?

The three aspects of corporate integrity, nutrition and health and food safety can not be confused; consumers must buy what they want, to achieve this appeal is the key, rather than preservatives and food additives "zero degree" Coca-Cola solution was seized in Taiwan The preservatives, Ajisen Ramen soup base is concentrated liquid preparation, KFC soybean milk is actually made of soybean milk powder, and Shanxi old vinegar preservatives are suspicious... Since July of this year, negative news concerning food products have been successively linked, and companies involved are almost always A well-known big brand. Unlike previous food safety incidents, this round of focused exposure is not a common falsification, and some are even within the scope of national standards, and strictly speaking are not food safety issues. However, these "events" still touched the sensitive nerves of the people.

What exactly are the food additives that are of concern? Loss of sense of security, where is the problem?

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One of the most insecure safety doubts is whether the company is not very kind or the public is too sensitive?

Food incidents that were exposed one after another did not seem to be related to each other, but at a glance, the big brands involved were all involved. This not only makes consumers' trust in relevant brand names begin to drop, but they can't help but ask: “Is the current food safety environment “deteriorated” to the point where even these big brands can't trust?”

Fu Liang, a professor at the Department of Food Science and Engineering at Jinan University, told the Yangcheng Evening News that these recent incidents involved issues of corporate integrity, nutritional health and food safety. Some products may have the problem of fraudulent consumers or nutritional standards, but there is not necessarily a food safety problem. If consumers confuse the three, they can easily cause panic. "Actually, in terms of food safety, they are not questionable". "As long as the publicity and final sales of products can be relatively consistent, meet the hygiene requirements in production, and can guarantee safety, it should be understandable."

In fact, after a series of major food safety incidents such as cooking oil, clenbuterol, Sudan red, and melamine, the public has reached the point where all food safety has been achieved.

"I think consumers are over-stretched in terms of food safety. China's current food safety environment is generally good." Zeng Qingxiao, a professor at the South China University of Technology and deputy chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Food Safety Expert Committee, said: "Now consumers As soon as you hear the addition of additives to the food, you feel that there is a problem. In fact, as long as the additive is not excessive, it is safe."

The reason why the public does not have a sense of security for food safety is "on the one hand because of lack of food safety knowledge, and on the other hand, because the public lacks confidence in government supervision." Yang Guanfeng, a food additive expert, said.

The second question is whether the safety standards are too low or the government can't control them.

In the recent food incidents, the most controversial is the food "preservative." The same "zero degree" Coca-Cola, in Taiwan does not allow the addition of "methyl paraben" preservatives, but in the mainland it is possible. In the event of Shanxi old vinegar, as long as the total acid above 6 degrees can be completely without preservatives, but according to the national standard of Shanxi mature vinegar, the total acid requirement is 4.5 degrees or more, so it is also allowed to use "sodium benzoate" preservatives.

The reason why the controversy is caused by the fact that China's food standards are too low?

"For enterprises, as long as they are used within the scope of the country's allowable additions, it is legal. As far as this range is unreasonable and safe and unsafe, it is a matter for the Ministry of Health to consider." Fu Liang said that standards set by various countries and regions. Differently, this is a common phenomenon, because the issues, scales and standards considered are all different. We cannot simply say who is better or who is bad, but can only continue to revise and improve existing standards as time progresses and technological progress.

However, Zheng Fengtian, professor of the School of Agriculture and Rural Development at Renmin University of China, stated in his blog post “Food Fraud Calls for Third-Party Social Supervision” that the “refractory bone soup” and “fake soy milk” reflect not only the lack of corporate integrity behind them, but also It is the reality of the lack of regulatory initiative, the difficulty of consumer rights protection, and the absence of third-party social supervision in China.

Some industry insiders in the food industry frankly stated that China’s current monitoring of food safety has actually spent a lot of time, but due to too many companies involved, the scope of monitoring involves all aspects of food production, processing, transportation, sales and other aspects, the government is very Difficult to take into account. For example, the detection of illegal additives, there are often many kinds of additives in the same category, but the state requires only testing several of them, so some illegal companies can easily evade detection.

Zheng Fengtian told reporters that China's food safety supervision now has two problems: First, the government's input is not enough. “There are several departments involved in the supervision of food safety in China, but there is no core, and all departments do not regard food safety supervision as their main business. In the event of food safety problems, the regulatory authorities seldom take the initiative to investigate and it is anxious to clear things out. Responsibility, to find ways to 'fire,' rather than to explain the truth to the public. Second, the state's penalties for illegal companies are too light, the cost of illegal enterprises is too low.

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Injury Additives There are bound to be traces of food additives in almost every significant food incident. Therefore, in April this year, the Ministry of Health specifically published the “List of Non-edible Substances that May Be Illegal in Food Additives” and “Abusable Foods The list of varieties of food additives allows companies to "take warnings," but it also allows ordinary people to subconsciously regard food additives as a "flood beast." Yang Junfeng, an expert on food additives, said in an interview with reporters that food additives are not a major issue in China's food safety, but they have only given back to the “non-food substances”.

What are food additives? "The MSG and sugar that people eat most often are actually food additives," Yang Guanfeng said by way of example.

“More than 90% of foods have been added with food additives. Isn't it really clear what kind of role food additives play in people's daily lives?” Yang Guanfeng said, taking preservatives as an example, people are like “anti-thief” vigilant “foods.” Preservatives" are actually guardians of "food safety."

Food-borne diseases caused by food-borne contamination of pathogenic microorganisms, including food poisoning, are currently the major food safety problems in China and even the world. All food contamination factors (including veterinary drug residues, pesticide residues, food additives, etc.), and the severity and harmfulness of bacterial contamination ranked first. The addition of food preservatives is the most common way to prevent food spoilage and harm to human health. Without food preservatives, there will be no modern food safety.

"Assuming that there is no food additive, there will be no modern food industry, and Coca-Cola, McDonald's, and KFC will not exist anymore," Yang Guanfeng said. The color, flavor, taste, and flavor of Coca-Cola are supported by food additives: color, caramel Pigments; Fragrance, cola essence; Flavor, sour agent Phosphoric acid, "Sweet" Cola substitutes for aspartame; Type, phosphate buffering, ensuring that caramel color does not coagulate and precipitate. Preservative carbon dioxide (which is also one of the sources of sourness), sodium benzoate, guarantees food safety for its shelf life and shelf life.

Yang Guanfeng said that in recent years, the food safety problems caused by the illegal addition of "non-edible substances" such as lean meat, Sudan, malachite green, melamine, and plasticizer phthalates were all blamed for "food products." Additives" Actually, food additives are used as "non-edible substances".

In fact, there is not a single food safety incident in our country caused by food additives. Mistaking the food additives as the most important issue in our country's food safety incidents can cause a relatively large miscalculation of food safety in our country. In addition, China's food additives and food safety science knowledge is poorly promoted, and food safety standards are seriously lagging. For a long time, food safety information has been issued and transmitted abnormally, and it is not necessary to leave intakes to talk about “carcinogenic” or “toxic” problems. Science, not rigorous. The rational understanding of food safety issues is not enough. It is the source of confusion for ordinary people who "what they don't know what to eat."

However, Yang Guanfeng also frankly stated that at present, the supervision of the use of food additives is difficult to scientifically formulate safety standards, as well as production and users' understanding and use of food additive safety standards. There are nearly 450,000 registered food production and processing enterprises in China, of which less than ten are small workshops and small factories account for 80%. The planting and breeding sectors rely on more than 200 million scattered farmers. “Enterprises are scattered and small, small in scale, low in starting point, uneven in quality, lack of sound supervision and management mechanisms, inadequate regulatory resources, and unsatisfactory systems. Inadequate supervision and lack of integrity in some enterprises — these are all food products. The main reasons for the continuous emergence of security problems,” Yang Guanfeng said: “At present, there are deficiencies in some methods and standards for identification. However, supervision can still start from the day-to-day, and the most important thing is to strengthen the integrity of the production enterprises.”