According to CCTV news, gold foil chocolate, gold foil ice cream, gold foil cake, and even gold foil steak and gold foil sushi, in recent years, some businesses have begun to give food in order to make the food they sell look more high-end and upscale.” gilded”. And the ordinary food, once put on the coat of gold foil, is immediately worth a hundred times, and can even be sold at sky-high prices. But if this happens again in the future, it would be illegal.
Recently, the State Administration of Market Supervision, the National Health and Health Commission, and the General Administration of Customs jointly issued a notice, clearly stating that according to my country’s food safety laws and regulations and food safety standards, gold foil, silver foil, gold powder and silver powder are not food. Additives cannot be used in food production and operation.
Although the relevant departments expressly prohibit it, there are still merchants who knowingly commit it. Recently, Zhejiang, Hubei, Hainan, Guangxi, Shandong and other places have carried out relevant special inspection activities. Why did the three departments jointly stop gold foil food? Adding gold foil to food, in addition to looking good, is it really good for the body? Is edible gold leaf the same as our common gold? Is gold foil really edible?
Is gold leaf really good for the body?
Gold leaf food is expensive, so some people think that eating gold leaf must be good for the body. Is this really true?
China Agricultural University nutrition professor Fan Zhihong: Gold itself, because it is a An element with relatively low chemical reactivity, it is difficult to dissolve in the environment we cook in daily, that is to say, it is in the form of a metal solid, it cannot be turned into an ion, and it cannot enter us. into the blood. So in the case of using gold leaf for a little decoration, it’s not actually absorbed by us. Of course, if you add aqua regia, it can be dissolved. The key is that the stomach acid in our stomach can’t play such a big role. Therefore, we cannot say that you can absorb gold after eating gold foil, but you cannot absorb it. In the end, it actually passes through the intestines.
Is it harmful to eat gold leaf?
Experts have made it clear that gold foil has no nutritional value for the human body, and it will be excreted as it is. Then some friends asked again, “A Dream of Red Mansions” has the plot of Second Sister You committing suicide by swallowing gold. Will eating gold leaf be harmful to the body?
Experts said that swallowing gold to commit suicide swallowed gold nuggets, or stuck in the throat to cause suffocation, or fell down, slashed the digestive tract, injured human organs, and caused internal bleeding and other situations that led to death. The amount of gold foil is not enough to cause this kind of damage. Will eating gold leaf poison people?
China Agricultural University nutrition professor Fan Zhihong: Gold is a relatively stable It does not react with hydrogen ions in stomach acid, and it releases some ions, so in a sense, it is relatively inert. Therefore, it is not said that you will be poisoned by eating a little gold leaf. Of course you can’t eat too much.
Hu Xiangpeng, deputy director of the Department of Gastroenterology, Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University: If you take a large amount, it may cause indigestion and so on. Unless very large, build up in the gastrointestinal tract and may affect the gastrointestinal tract. If the purity of the gold leaf is not enough, or some other elements are added, it may be poisoned.
Gold foil does not belong to the category of food additives in my country
Gold foil does not belong to the category of food additives, so how is the definition of food additives in my country?
In my country, in accordance with the relevant national standards for food safety and the use of food additives, food additives are defined as: And artificial synthetic or natural substances added to food for preservation, preservation and processing needs. At present, there are 23 categories and more than 2,000 varieties of food additives in my country, including acidity regulators, antioxidants, bleaching agents, colorants, preservatives and so on.
Fan Zhihong, professor of nutrition at China Agricultural University, member of the “Source News” expert database of China Association for Science and Technology: There is another situation, that is In order to improve the nutritional value of food, for example, adding some vitamins, minerals, calcium and vitamin C in it are all permitted. Another situation is to improve the sensory quality of food, such as chocolate, if you don’t add emulsifiers, it will not be as silky. For another example, when you eat a birthday cake, if you say that you don’t add any coloring, it is all a cream color, you may also feel very boring. Then this is the quality of improving the taste of the food, improving its visual quality.
Is edible gold leaf common gold?
Obviously, gold foil does not meet the conditions of food additives, and my country has not included gold foil in the category of food additives. According to experts, gold foil is divided into two types: edible gold foil and decorative gold foil. The gold content of decorative gold foil is usually 98%The gold content of edible gold foil is as high as 99.99% or more, and it cannot contain other heavy metals that may poison the human body, such as copper and lead.
What is the reason for the three departments to jointly stop the gold leaf food?
Why are some merchants so keen to dress their products in gold and silver? Quite simply, it can be sold more expensively. 5 yuan ice cream, with a piece of gold leaf, sells for 58. There was even a chocolate covered with gold foil, which sold for a sky-high price of 120,000 yuan. This time, the three departments jointly stopped the gold foil food, on the one hand to avoid potential food safety hazards, and on the other hand to curb this extravagant trend.
Editor Sun Linzhi