●The use of food additives in my country has a long history, but the scientific supervision started a little later.

There are actually many food additives used by the ancients, such as brine (coagulant) used in making tofu, alkali (acidity regulator) added when steaming steamed buns, and baking soda (leavening agent) used in baking bread, all of which are common food additives.

●Melamine, Sudan red, hanging white block, industrial gelatin, etc., are all non-edible substances, not food additives approved by the state.

●According to the laws and regulations of the state and using food additives according to the dosage, the safety is guaranteed.

When it comes to food additives, many people think that they are all harmful chemicals, which are used by merchants to learn from foreign countries to harm everyone in recent years. Many people also think that the ancients made delicious food without food additives. Is that true? Did the ancients really use no food additives?

Food additives have been used for more than 10,000 years

Food additives are synthetic or natural substances added to food to improve the quality of food color, aroma and taste, as well as to meet the needs of antiseptic and processing technology. Research shows that humans have been using food additives more than 10,000 years ago. So, what was the additive used at first? From a global perspective, the food additive used by humans in the early days may be salt. Moreover, table salt was discovered by the Chinese in the early days.

In Chinese, the word "salt" originally means "cooking brine in a vessel". According to "Shuowen", those who are born are called brine, and those who are boiled are called salt. According to experts, the Chinese people have learned to cook sea salt in the period between Shennong (Yandi) and Huangdi, that is, as late as 5000 BC to 3000 BC. In the 1950s, the salt-frying utensils unearthed in Fujian just proved this. The main component of salt is actually sodium chloride. Although salt is no longer managed as a food additive, it is actually a chemical substance, and it is actively used by humans to improve the taste of food and supplement nutrition to the human body. Because salt is an indispensable substance for the normal physiological activities of the human body, each person needs about 5-6 grams per day.

At first, humans lived by hunting, and their main food was the meat of beasts, and the salt needed by the body could be obtained from meat. However, with the advent of human settlement and agricultural production, access to salt became a problem. In this sense, the discovery and purposeful use of salt has become an inherent need of human life. Therefore, historians also believe that the appearance of food additives is not accidental, but the product of the development of human society to a certain stage.

There are many records of food additives in the past dynasties

If we look at the history of food additives, we will find that our ancestors have used food additives in food from a very early age, and it is with the help of food additives that we can eat many traditional delicacies.

According to historical records, during the Zhou Dynasty, Chinese people already used cinnamon to add fragrance, which is actually the same principle as the flavors and fragrances used today. It's just that the extraction technology in ancient times is not as developed as it is now, and the essences used now are of higher purity.

As early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, about 25-220 AD, the ancestors of China began the tradition of using coagulant brine to make tofu.

Since the Southern Song Dynasty, the food additive formula ratio of "one alum, two alkalis and three salts" has been used in the frying of fried dough sticks. This technique has been around for a long time and is still in use today. However, current scientific research has found that the use of alum in traditional fritters is likely to cause too high aluminum intake. Modern technology has developed aluminum-free fritters.

According to the Records of Shijing, during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, people first applied fermentation technology to steaming steamed buns. At the same time, in order to solve the fermentation problem of noodles, people used the technology of adding alkaline noodles.

Nitrite is also used. As a food additive, nitrite has been used in the production of bacon in the Song Dynasty in my country, and its role is to protect the color and prevent corrosion. This technology was introduced to Europe in the 13th century and was widely used in European society, and was also deeply loved by the local people. In other words, many delicious sausages in Europe can be regarded as benefiting from my country.

In the 6th century AD, the agricultural scientist Jia Sixie also recorded the method of using natural pigments in food in "Qi Min Yao Shu".

There are many such examples in history.

The supervision of food additives in China started late

It can be seen that the history of using food additives in my country is very long, but the misunderstanding of food additives is caused by the different names of "additives" and the lag in many people's understanding of additives. Of course, there is another point, that is, although my country has been using it for a long time, the supervision of food additives started later.

This has a lot to do with historical development, especially the special reasons of modern Chinese history. my country began to formally manage food additives in 1981, and promulgated the "Hygienic Standards for the Use of Food Additives" (GB2760). It has only been 36 years. The management of food additives in developed countries has a history of hundreds of years. For example, Japan has carried out legislative management on food additives since the Meiji Restoration period (1860s).

In recent years, there have been a lot of reports that food additives are harmful to health, such as Sudan red and hanging white block incidents. In fact, this is a misunderstanding of food additives. Substances such as Sudan red and hanging white cubes are not "food additives" at all, but "illegal additives". The difference between the two is that "food additives" are edible substances approved by the state, while "illegal additives" are fundamentally Not allowed to be eaten.

In fact, my country has now formulated strict and detailed standards for the use range and dosage of various food additives, and the food additives allowed to be used in accordance with the regulations have undergone all-round scientific and strict safety testing and evaluation. At the same time, the law also stipulates that only food additives that are technically necessary to use can be included in the scope of permitted use. In addition, the synthetic food additives currently approved for use in my country have been approved for use in more than two developed countries. Therefore, after years of exploration and management, it can be considered that as long as food additives are used in strict accordance with the varieties and dosages stipulated by the state, the safety is guaranteed. For a long time, the industry has firmly supported the regulatory authorities to continue to crack down on the illegal addition of non-edible substances and excessive use of food additives; it also calls on enterprises to strictly abide by relevant national regulations and use food additives reasonably in the production process.