Netizens suggested that hot pot unify the spiciness standard, and the Sichuan Hot Pot Association responded

Netizens suggested that hot pot unify the spiciness standard, and the Sichuan Hot Pot Association responded →

Hot pot, skewers, when it comes to Sichuan food, the first keyword that comes to mind may be "spicy". A considerable number of foreign tourists come to Sichuan to check in, but also for the "hot" food. But recently, some friends have raised questions about Sichuan's "spicy" standard.

Recently

Netizens posted in the Sichuan spicy community

Slightly spicy, medium spicy, extra spicy are too subjective

It should be formulated more scientifically

The province's unified hot pot spiciness index

Sichuan Hotpot Association said

The opinions of netizens are reliable and the plan is being studied

　　01

Hot pot has a "spicy" seed

"Slightly spicy" makes people can't eat?

"Foreigners challenge the spiciest hot pot in Chengdu, sign the "life and death form" before eating" and "Guangdong boys eat slightly spicy hot pot and tears like rain"... Recently, on various short video platforms, hot pot spicy content is frequently "out of the circle", and netizens call it "slightly spicy" pot is also unbearable. "Spicy than spicy" became a publicity stunt for some hot pot restaurants.

Also recently, in Yuzhong District, Chongqing City, a recruitment notice issued by a hot pot restaurant attracted the attention of netizens: "The city recruits the most spicy employees, Indian Devil Spicy 9800 yuan, Devil Spicy 6800 yuan, Chaotian pepper 4800 yuan." "Linking hiring salaries to eating spicy.

Netizens suggested that in order to avoid Internet celebrity stores with spicy gimmicks being mistaken by tourists for representatives of Chengdu hot pot, Chengdu should take the lead in jumping out of the blind spicy, promote the "spicy" logo, form a new industry standard, and provide a new scale of hot pot food culture. Many netizens posted with the post: "Agree! "Out-of-town people really need it."

　　02

Slightly spicy, medium spicy, extra spicy

Is there a standard for spiciness?

The hot pot taste is attractive because there are a variety of spices, butter and clear oil mixed in proportion, giving off a mixed aroma with a vivid aftertaste. Among the many spices, chili pepper is very important, and spicy taste is the "soul" of hot pot.

We often say that the spiciness is slightly spicy, medium spicy, and extra spicy, but this setting is very different from the international standard for measuring spiciness.

The earliest international measure of spiciness is the 1912 SHU (Scoville Spiciness Index) by American medicinal chemist Wilbur Lincoln Scoville, which indicates the number of times a substance is diluted to the point that it does not feel spicy. The pepper spiciness measured by this method ranges from 0 units to hundreds of thousands of units, and the principle of SHU spicy measurement is still used today.

Focusing on China, as early as 2006, the College of Food Science and Technology of Hunan Agricultural University in China was entrusted by the National Standards Committee to formulate national standards for chili peppers and chili pepper products, and since then, various places and enterprises have also begun to define spiciness more precisely.

In 2014, the Department of Food Science of Sichuan Tourism University and the Key Laboratory of Culinary Science of Sichuan Provincial Higher Education University based on the SHU principle divided 123 Sichuan dishes into four grades: slightly spicy, medium spicy, spicy and extra spicy.

So is there a corresponding standard for the spiciness of hot pot? In 2017, Dezhuang Group released the "Li's spiciness" standard, which divides the spiciness of hot pot into 9 grades: slightly spicy (29°~ 30°), low-spicy (39°~ 40°), medium-spicy (49°~ 50°), high-spicy (59°~ 60°), extra-spicy (69°~70°), and violent spicy (≥ 6°).

In 2018, Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision issued the "Spicy Hot Pot Base Spicy Measurement and Grade Division", which graded the spiciness (150SHU=1 spicy). Different from the only mandatory food standard in China, food safety standards, "Spicy Hot Pot Base Spicy Measurement and Grading" is a recommended local standard and is not well known.

Since spiciness has a standard delineation, how difficult is it to implement? Experts have their opinions.

Sima Qingyi, vice president of Chongqing Cultural Tourism Association, president of the Food Review Society, and Sichuan cuisine scholar, said in an interview with Upstream News: "The hotpot spiciness standard is an objective standard, but whether it is spicy or not is based on the different acceptance of each person, it is actually a subjective standard, and it is difficult to unify objective standards and subjective standards." The spiciness standard may bring greater workload and higher costs to some hot pot companies, which will eventually be reflected in the hot pot price, and I personally think that the implementation of this standard is very difficult. ”

According to the spicy community report, Yan Long, executive president of the Sichuan Hotpot Association, believes that the spiciness of the hot pot can indeed be calculated with the help of professional measurement tools, and the Sichuan Hotpot Association is studying a unified standard for grading the spiciness of the hot pot, and will use "degree" to indicate the spiciness of hot pot condiments such as hot pot base, so that consumers can choose the bottom of the pot more accurately.

　　03

Look at the process, look at the recipe

What other standards are there for Sichuan hot pot?

Although the spicy "standard" is difficult to unify, in Sichuan, hot pot also has its own local standards.

In 2016, the local standard of Sichuan hot pot base "Food Safety Local Standard Hot Pot Base" was released. This standard is a food safety product standard, which is mandatory and mandatory from January 2017, 1, and all relevant enterprises in Sichuan Province must meet this standard.

Among them, the relevant requirements on pollutant limits, mycotoxin limits, microbial limits, pesticide residue limits, veterinary drug residue limits, food additives, label labels and other relevant requirements strictly follow the provisions of the national food safety basic standards.

At the same time, according to the production process, raw and auxiliary material formula and packaging method of hot pot base products in Sichuan Province, the scope of hot pot base is defined as: "This standard is applicable to hot pot base made by using edible animal fat and/or edible vegetable oil, edible salt, spices, peppers, bean paste as the main raw materials, adding or not adding other raw and auxiliary materials and food additives, and after pretreatment, ingredients, stir-frying or boiling processing, packaging (or separate packaging). Among them, the split packaging hot pot base refers to the solid or semi-solid materials, oils, spices (such as dried peppers, peppercorns, etc.) and other raw materials required in the hot pot base after processing, and the hot pot base is formed into a sales unit.

The introduction of this food safety product standard also provides a basis for law enforcement for relevant departments, and if any enterprise does not meet the standard, it will be punished accordingly.

(Sichuan released WeChat public account)