A certain brand of soy sauce has a "double label" in the ingredient list?
The "doorway" in soy sauce, explained at one time
Before the National Day holiday, a well-known condiment company caused a huge controversy because the soy sauce it produced was suspected of having a "double standard": some netizens broke the news that the brand of soy sauce sold in China contained food additives, while the soy sauce sold abroad had zero additives. Only water, soybeans, wheat, salt, etc., are considered to be "double standards" in the production of their products.
Although the company has repeatedly issued statements on social platforms denying the idea of double standards, the storm continued to ferment on the online platform.
This incident also caused anxiety among some netizens. Everyone said that they did not know what soy sauce to eat, and they were also curious about how to treat the additives in soy sauce.
Today, I will give you a stroke. What are the food additives in soy sauce?
Why add them?
How is the security?
Then I will talk about how to choose soy sauce, what indicators to look at, and how to eat soy sauce reasonably.
1. What additives are added in soy sauce?
The main raw materials of any soy sauce are these four things: water, soybeans (yellow soybeans or black soybeans), wheat (flour), and salt.
So, they will occupy the first four positions on the ingredient list.
In the back, additional ingredients that may be added are:
The first category: sugar, fructose syrup, sucralose and other sweet substances
Interpretation: Sucralose was first developed by the British, and the United States is its largest sales market
We all know that adding a spoonful of sugar when making savory dishes can make the taste more delicious and the taste more mellow.
Therefore, the braised pork, fish-flavored shredded pork, and Kung Pao chicken should be put in sugar... A small amount of sugar in the soy sauce will also soften the salty taste, delicious and rich.
White sugar needless to say.
Fructose syrup is a product made by enzymatic hydrolysis of corn starch. The ingredients are glucose and fructose, and it has a refreshing and delicious sweetness.
Fructose syrup is the main ingredient in drinks like Coke Sprite.
Sucralose is a sweetener with high sweetness and positive sweetness. It is licensed to be used in more than 20 types of food such as soy sauce in my country.
This sweetener was first developed by the British, approved by the International Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), and first used in Canada, while the United States is its largest sales market.
The second category: sodium glutamate, disodium 5'-flavor nucleotides (sodium inosinate and sodium guanylate), yeast extract and other freshness-enhancing substances
Interpretation: The freshness enhancer is not terrible, nor is it a synthetic substance
Sodium glutamate is the monosodium glutamate that Japanese scholars extracted from kelp more than a hundred years ago.
Disodium 5'-flavor nucleotide is an umami substance that exists in chicken broth.
One of the reasons why products such as "Sour Pork" are more delicious is that more disodium 5'-flavor nucleotides are produced during the after-cooking of chilled meat.
Nucleotides exist in the nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) of all living organisms, including the human body, and are not some strange synthetic substance.
Yeast extract is a fresh product made by using yeast as raw material, enzymatically hydrolyzing the protein and nucleic acid in it, then separating the umami substances, and then concentrating it.
It not only contains umami substances such as 5'-flavor disodium nucleotides and amino acids, but also contains a variety of B vitamins.
In short, freshness enhancers are not a terrible thing.
The key is not to overeat.
If you lose the natural flavor of the food, and everything you eat is the taste of yeast hydrolyzate, and the taste of monosodium glutamate chicken essence, it will be very boring.
The third category: sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, sodium dehydroacetate and other antiseptic substances
Interpretation: It is to prevent the deterioration caused by mold exceeding the standard after the salt reduction of soy sauce
Soy sauce contains more salt, which itself has a certain antibacterial ability.
Salt is the oldest preservative, but when there is too much salt, soy sauce can be extra salty, neither tasty nor healthy.
If the salt content is reduced, the bacteriostatic ability will be reduced.
After all, we can't use up soy sauce in one day. A bottle of soy sauce will take one or two months. If it is kept at room temperature every day, there may be cases where microorganisms multiply and grow a layer of "mildew", or even the mold exceeds the standard.
In order to prevent this from happening, you only need to add a small amount of preservatives to help, and there is no risk of "excessive use" (after all, food additives also cost money, and it is meaningless to add more after the effect is achieved).
Whether sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate, have been widely used in countries around the world for decades, and have never found any relationship between them and cancer risk.
Sorbic acid itself is a substance existing in human metabolism, and its toxicity (semi-lethal dose) is even lower than that of table salt.
Benzoic acid is also present in many fruits, such as blueberries and cranberries, so don’t be afraid.
For soy sauce, if you want to avoid adding preservatives, you need to add more salt; and if you want to ensure the safety of salt-reduced products, you need to add preservatives.
Studies have shown that the dietary factor that contributes the most to the risk of cardiovascular death in my country is excessive sodium intake.
Therefore, reducing salt is the first priority. Eating soy sauce without preservatives does not make people live longer.
The fourth category: caramel coloring
Interpretation: It has long been widely used in snacks, cola and other foods
Caramel coloring is only added to dark soy sauce products, not to light soy sauce.
This is because it has a strong coloring ability, adding one or two spoons can make a pot of dishes brown, suitable for braised and stewed foods.
The so-called caramel is the brown substance produced when frying sugar.
To make food such as candied haws and yam, you need to heat and melt the sugar.
After the sugar is heated and melted, the color slowly turns brown, and this color is caramel coloring.
Of course, there are different types of caramel colors produced by modern industry, some are used in beverages such as cola, some are used in bakery snacks (such as black forest cakes, cocoa biscuits, etc.), and some are used in soy sauce, sauces and other condiments among.
Why is it not scary to drink a lot of caramel coloring from cola, and not afraid to eat brown biscuits, but so scared to eat the caramel coloring in soy sauce?
2. How to choose soy sauce?
Mainly look at these four points
The question now is how to choose soy sauce in the face of all kinds of soy sauce.
1. Look at the amino acid nitrogen content of soy sauce
The grade of soy sauce is divided by "amino acid nitrogen".
It reflects the amount of amino acids produced in the brewing process of soy sauce, which is closely related to the umami taste and nutritional value of soy sauce. It can be said to be the "dry goods" indicator of soy sauce.
Amino acid nitrogen ≥ 0.40%: tertiary soy sauce.
Amino acid nitrogen ≥ 0.55%: secondary soy sauce.
Amino acid nitrogen ≥ 0.70%: first-class soy sauce.
Amino acid nitrogen ≥ 0.80%: premium soy sauce.
Of course, some products have higher amino acid nitrogen levels, up to 1.20%-1.30%.
Such soy sauce is naturally the best quality, not only delicious, rich in taste, rich in aroma, theoretically speaking, it also has higher nutritional value such as a variety of B vitamins and minerals.
Looking at this indicator, it is better than shaking the bottle to see the foam (adding a thickener can make the foam richer), pouring it on the food to see the dyeing effect (adding caramel coloring can make the color stronger), and tasting the umami with the tongue (add more Monosodium glutamate and nucleotide sodium salts can be more fresh) and the like are much more reliable.
2. Look at the use of soy sauce
If you need a dish with a strong color for braised dishes, choose dark soy sauce.
If you want to stir-fry or cold dishes, you want the taste to be fragrant and the color is refreshing, you can use light soy sauce.
Some soy sauces are dual-use types. It does not indicate whether it is dark soy sauce or light soy sauce. You can check whether there is "caramel coloring" in the ingredient list. If not, the coloring ability is not so strong.
3. Look at the sodium content
Reducing the sodium content of soy sauce is an important option for health-conscious consumers.
The Nutrition Facts table for soy sauce usually lists the sodium content in "servings" per 10 g/ml, or 15 g/ml.
A spoonful of soy sauce is about 10 grams, so it is more convenient to label it this way.
Pay attention to converting all kinds of products into 10 grams, and then choose the one with the lowest sodium content among the products with the highest amino acid nitrogen content.
For example, both products are "premium soy sauce".
The amino acid nitrogen of product A is 1.20%, and each 10-gram serving contains 495 mg of sodium; the amino acid nitrogen of product B is 0.90%, and each 15-gram serving contains 1132 mg of sodium.
Then, when all converted into 10 grams, the sodium content of product B is 754 mg.
Obviously, product A has high amino acid nitrogen and low sodium content, which is better than product B.
4. Look at the name of the product
According to the latest regulations in my country, only pure brewed soy sauce products can be called "soy sauce".
If you add ingredients similar to soy sauce that are made by chemical hydrolysis or enzymatic hydrolysis without brewing, they cannot be called soy sauce, but can only be called "so-and-so seasoning liquid".
Therefore, consumers now do not need to worry about using "prepared soy sauce" to pretend to be brewed soy sauce.
3. There are skills in using soy sauce,
It is recommended to re-sprinkle
When cooking with soy sauce, the most important technical points are: use high-quality soy sauce, pour the soy sauce after the pot, and reduce the amount of other condiments.
The soy sauce has a strong aroma and contains a small amount of sugar and freshness enhancers, so there is no need to add MSG chicken essence. The sugar can be added less or not, and the salt can also be reduced.
The delicious taste and aroma of soy sauce cannot be replaced by salt + chicken essence.
It will make it easier to season when stir-frying: no salt at all, just add a spoon or two of soy sauce when it comes out of the pan.
There are four advantages to pouring soy sauce in the pot: first, to prevent the soy sauce from going deep into the interior of the dish, which will affect the color; second, to prevent the soy sauce from being heated to produce a simmering taste, which will affect the flavor; third, to let the salty taste adhere to the surface of the dish, and it has not penetrated deep into the interior for the time being. On the premise of achieving the same salty taste, at least one third of the salt (sodium) should be reduced; fourth, a small amount of sugar in the soy sauce can be used to achieve a fresh and sweet feeling without the need for a large spoon of sugar.
In short, using soy sauce in this way can easily reduce salt, sugar, and increase nutrients.
Soy sauce contains a variety of B vitamins, potassium, magnesium and other nutrients, although the amount is small, a little more is counted.
In addition to sodium and sugar, salt and sugar contain no other nutrients.
4. Don't pay too much attention to words such as "zero addition", "top road" and "special brew"
Besides, how to tell whether it is high-quality soy sauce or not, the best way is to look at the data directly. All kinds of rhetoric such as the promotional labels printed by the company are not important.
To explain here, the food additives approved for use in my country are almost all varieties licensed for use in other countries.
The so-called "foreign countries do not use food additives" are outright rumors.
Even if you don't understand English or Japanese, you can buy a pack of potato chips, buy a bottle of Coke, read the Chinese ingredient list at the back, and see if there are food additives in the products produced by foreign companies.
If you really care about food additives, you can buy organic soy sauce and "zero-additive" soy sauce produced by major brands in China, and there is no problem of "additive products are sold in China, and non-additive products are sold abroad".
If you can't find it in the supermarket, you can just buy it online.
However, the so-called "zero addition" does not mean that the product is the safest, nor does it mean that the product is of the highest quality.
Text / Fan Zhihong (Director of the Chinese Nutrition Society, Chief Expert of Science Communication hired by the China Association for Science and Technology)