Yihao Classroom
Whether preservatives are harmful depends on the amount.
Recently, the Beijing Municipal Food and Drug Administration found 6 types of substandard food and has taken measures to stop their sale. Among the substandard products reported this time, the exceeding standard of the preservative benzoic acid was once again "on the list." Not only in Beijing, but other cities also have the problem of exceeding the standard of preservatives. Experts say that long-term ingestion of excessive amounts of benzoic acid preservatives may induce immune system diseases such as asthma and urticaria. It should be noted that infants and young children, because their organs are not yet fully developed and their metabolic functions are not yet perfect, the health damage caused by long-term ingestion of preservatives is unpredictable.
Food additives are an unavoidable topic in life. In health education classes in communities or enterprises and institutions, people often ask us various related questions. Due to the lack of popular science knowledge about food additives, coupled with the hype by some media about illegal food additive incidents, the negative effects of food additives have been magnified, so the public is prone to panic about food additives.
In fact, food additives have long been an indispensable part of our daily diet. Even if we go back 100 years or more, our lives cannot be separated from food additives, such as gypsum for traditional tofu making, litharge for making preserved eggs, alum for frying fried dough sticks, and thirteen spices, red yeast rice, amaranth red, etc., are all considered food additives. With the development of food science and chemical industry, today, humans have identified thousands of chemical synthetic or natural chemical substances that can be used as food additives. At present, China has more than 20 categories and nearly 3000 varieties of food additives, including acidity regulators, anticaking agents, antifoaming agents, antioxidants, bleaching agents, leavening agents, coloring agents, color protectants, enzyme preparations, flavor enhancers, nutritional fortifiers, preservatives, sweeteners, thickeners, and flavors.
Preservatives are a widely used type of food additive, and benzoic acid and benzoates are typical examples. They can be found in jams, pickled vegetables, candied fruit, gelatin candies, flavored syrups, vinegar, soy sauce, sauces, compound seasonings, blended wines, fruit and vegetable juices, carbonated drinks, tea, coffee, and cold drinks. If these foods do not add preservatives, the massive reproduction of bacteria will easily lead to their spoilage, which will not only cause waste but also easily cause food poisoning, various gastrointestinal diseases, and even death.
The purpose of adding preservatives to food is to ensure the non-perishability and health safety of food. It is actually a friend of mankind, but the premise of its use must be that the varieties are allowed by the state, the scope of addition is in accordance with regulations, and the amount of addition is within the allowed range. Any food additive components not included in the GB 2760-2014 National Food Safety Standard Food Additive Use Standard Catalog are non-additives. Even for varieties in the standard catalog, their scope of use will be limited; otherwise, it will be considered cross-range use. For example, adding the preservative sodium benzoate to pastries is illegal. In addition, the amount of preservatives added is also strictly regulated. For example, the allowed amount of benzoic acid (salt) (calculated as benzoic acid) added to candied fruit is 0.5 grams per kilogram of finished product. Exceeding this amount is considered excessive use, which is also illegal.
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