Caramel-colored soy sauce warns companies to regulate production

Soy sauce is a traditional condiment in China. However, in recent days, the chief physician Wu Aiwen of Peking University Cancer Hospital made it clear that the caramel color in soy sauce is a product. The fact that the phrase has caused an uproar makes people once again focus food safety issues on soy sauce, a must-have condiment for the kitchen.

According to statistics, the cumulative total soy sauce production in the country for the entire year of 2013 reached 7,579,509 tons. In recent years, as people’s consumer demand has changed, the products originally made of pale soy sauce have gradually been replaced by a variety of colored soy sauces. Mushroom soy sauce, special red soy sauce, barbecue soy sauce, seafood soy sauce, etc., varied, with their own characteristics. The characteristics of these soy sauces are high concentration, heavy body hanging dishes, deep color ratio, golden color and translucent color, can maintain vivid colors, no fading, no blackening and mellow flavor in cooking.

According to industry insiders, to achieve the above requirements, only the traditional solar sauce process and high-salt lean state process can meet, and it needs to be fermented for more than one year. Such a manufacturing method has high cost, long cycle, and small yield. Therefore, most soy sauce manufacturers currently adopt a modified process, that is, adding caramel color at the later stage of fermentation.

Caramel color, also known as caramel color, is a kind of food additive widely used in foods. It is generally used as a coloring agent for soy sauce, candy and other foods, with food-grade sugars such as glucose, fructose, sucrose, Inverted sugar, maltose syrup, corn syrup, molasses, starch hydrolysate and the like are used as raw materials, and are heated (or pressurized) at a high temperature of 121 degrees Celsius or more to be coked and further processed.

Experts said that different raw materials and production processes produce different caramel color characteristics and application effects. At present, some domestic small caramel manufacturers and local earth caramel are limited by the production technology, process, and production equipment conditions, which can easily cause the content of its derivative 4-methylimidazole to exceed the standard and the physical and chemical indicators can not meet the national standards. It was exactly 4-methylimidazole that was confirmed by animal scientists in several US scientists in 2012. Excessive intake can cause lung cancer in mice and even teratogenicity.

It is reported that the “Coke Caramel Color” incident in 2012 was due to the addition of caramel color to the soda drinks produced by Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo, which resulted in the high content of 4-methylimidazole, which may cause cancer risk to the human body. Ultimately, the U.S. Consumer Health Maintenance Organization’s Center for Science in the Public Interest required that beverage production companies be prohibited from using caramel color.

The reporter interviewed people in the industry to learn that the caramel color contained in a can of cola (355ml) was only about 0.06%, while the ratio of added caramel in most soy sauce in the market such as straw mushroom, old pumping king, and teriyaki soy sauce Up to 30%-40%, caramel color content is between 500 times and 660 times that of cola.

It is understood that many manufacturers use caramel color without restrictions. The main reason is that China's current soy sauce production standards, namely "GB2760-2011 national food safety standards", stipulates that the maximum amount of caramel color used in soy sauce is in accordance with the production standards. Use, there is no clear usage limit.

Experts pointed out that the relevant departments should issue amendments to the standards for the use of caramel color as soon as possible, and the public can choose safer non-adding caramelized soy sauce products for the currently abused soy sauce market.