Does the mushroom bought in the market really contain formaldehyde? The possibility of artificially adding it in violation of regulations is very small

　　【Refuting rumors】

　　◎ Li Ting

　　Recently, there has been a wave of "testing the formaldehyde content of edible fungi with indoor formaldehyde detection kits" on the Internet.

Many self-media bloggers "go off the field" to evaluate and release the test results in the form of videos.

　　In these videos, many bloggers claimed that formaldehyde was detected on edible fungi such as shiitake mushrooms, white jade mushrooms, and enoki mushrooms. Many viewers were shocked when they saw them, and they became terrified of edible fungi, fearing that eating these mushrooms contained formaldehyde Edible fungi can cause cancer, and they all threatened that they would never dare to eat edible fungi again.

　　So, is it scientific to use indoor formaldehyde detection kits for food testing?

Does the edible fungus sold in the market contain formaldehyde?

What issues should be paid attention to when purchasing and eating related foods?

Let's talk about these things today.

　　The possibility of human violations added is very small

　　Formaldehyde is a colorless organic compound with a strong pungent odor.

According to the production route, formaldehyde is divided into two types: exogenous formaldehyde and endogenous formaldehyde.

Exogenous formaldehyde refers to formaldehyde added to commodities by illegal means.

In the past, some unscrupulous merchants used formaldehyde as a preservative and bleaching agent in pursuit of maximizing economic benefits to prolong the storage time of edible fungi and prevent edible fungi from rotting. These illegal acts have indeed brought adverse effects on the food safety of the people.

　　However, as the concept of health and environmental protection is becoming more and more popular, and relevant national laws and regulations are gradually being improved, this phenomenon has basically disappeared.

According to the current "Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China", "Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Law of the People's Republic of China" and "Usage Standards of Food Additives" and other relevant regulations, formaldehyde shall not be used as a food processing aid for production and operation, and shall not be added to food in any way. Formaldehyde is illegal.

At the same time, various supervisory departments in my country attach great importance to food safety issues. Relevant staff will test edible fungi sold on the market and severely crack down on illegal addition of formaldehyde.

　　In addition, formaldehyde, as a compound with a special pungent smell, is not very secretive and is easily discovered by ordinary consumers. Nowadays, almost no businessmen are willing to take the risk of trying their own methods, and the possibility of artificially adding formaldehyde in violation of regulations is very small.

Therefore, in the above video, the formaldehyde detected from the edible fungi can basically be concluded not to be exogenous formaldehyde.

　　Trace amounts of formaldehyde may be produced during biological metabolism

　　Since it is not exogenous formaldehyde, the formaldehyde in the edible fungus in the video can only be endogenous formaldehyde.

Endogenous formaldehyde is produced during biological metabolism.

　　At present, many scientists have found that edible fungi can produce trace amounts of formaldehyde in response to changes in the natural environment. For example, Japanese scholars have conducted research on the formaldehyde content and formation mechanism in shiitake mushrooms as early as the 1970s.

Therefore, it is normal for many bloggers to detect trace amounts of formaldehyde in edible fungi.

　　Since endogenous formaldehyde is produced by organisms in the process of metabolism and naturally exists in many foods, will they cause harm to the human body?

　　The answer is no.

Because under normal circumstances, edible fungi produce very little formaldehyde, and people will wash them before eating. The formaldehyde contained in them is very soluble in water and can be easily washed off.

　　The result of measuring the formaldehyde content in mushrooms with a kit may be inaccurate

　　In the above video, many bloggers use indoor formaldehyde detection kits to detect the formaldehyde content of edible fungi, but there are test loopholes in this detection method.

Because the above kit is specially used to detect the content of formaldehyde in a specific space such as a room, it is easily affected by many external factors such as temperature, humidity and air during the test, and the experimental results may be inaccurate.

　　At present, the methods for detecting formaldehyde in edible fungi mainly include acetylacetone method and pre-column derivatization high-performance liquid chromatography. These detection methods need to add specific detection reagents and cooperate with precision instruments to complete the detection. Institutions and supervisory departments are widely used in food testing.

　　In addition, after the trend of "using indoor formaldehyde detection kits to test the formaldehyde content of edible fungi" appeared, some market supervision departments immediately followed up and conducted formal formaldehyde testing, and found no phenomenon that the formaldehyde content of edible fungi exceeded the standard. .

Therefore, as long as consumers buy edible fungi through regular channels, they don't need to worry too much about the problem of excessive formaldehyde.

　　Two ways to help you easily remove formaldehyde

　　So, when consumers buy edible fungi, how can they tell whether formaldehyde has been added?

　　Consumers can smell it closely and observe carefully when purchasing. If the edible fungi have a pungent smell or the color is whiter than normal edible fungi, formaldehyde may be added.

　　In addition, if consumers are worried that the formaldehyde content of edible fungi is too high, they can use the following two methods to remove it.

　　First of all, you can soak and wash the edible fungi with more water.

Formaldehyde is a compound that is very soluble in water. After you buy edible fungi, you can wash them with running water first to remove the bacteria and chemical pesticides on the surface, and then soak the edible fungi in water for 10 minutes.

　　Secondly, be sure to make the edible mushrooms fully cooked when cooking.

Formaldehyde is easy to evaporate when heated, and almost all formaldehyde will evaporate during cooking, so as long as the edible fungus is fully cooked, there will be no problem.

(Source: Science Rumor Refutation Platform) (Source: Science and Technology Daily)