Many people like to eat Laotan sauerkraut-flavored instant noodles, but have you ever thought about the soul of this instant noodles – how Laotan sauerkraut buns are produced?
This year (2022) at the 315 party, the production process of Laotan sauerkraut buns was exposed, which was shocking.
Laotan sauerkraut buns are known as “Laotan craftsmanship, enough time to ferment”, and the promotional images are also clean jars of fermented sauerkraut.
But according to the 315 Party report, the sauerkraut you actually eat is actually the “sauerkraut” collected from the fields.
315’s exposure to the flag-raising vegetable industry is a large vegetable reprocessing enterprise in Huarong County, Hunan Province. According to its official website, it has cooperative relations with many well-known enterprises such as Master Kong and Uni-President.
(Source: CCTV Finance)
In the place where the sauerkraut was harvested, the workers either wore slippers or bare feet and stepped on the sauerkraut. Some even work while smoking, and throw the cigarette butts directly on the sauerkraut.
(Source: CCTV Finance)
The pickling process of these pit sauerkraut is even rougher: the mustard greens are not cleaned, and some even have withered and yellowed leaves after being placed, add water, salt, etc., and wrap them in film , cover with soil and pickle directly.
However, the manufacturers of sauerkraut turn a blind eye to all this, they just collect it, and then wash, remove the roots, cut the sauerkraut, and then transport it to the next process.
(A worker is filling a sauerkraut bag with liquid with a spoon.
Source: CCTV Finance)
The whole process does not detect bacteria, Escherichia coli and other indicators at all. Even in order to make sauerkraut look good, excessive preservatives will be added in it.
As a food company, all they do is what people put in their mouths, but they don’t care what happens when people eat them.
As soon as the news broke, many manufacturers have issued apology statements or removed related products from the shelves.
(Source: Screenshot of World Wide Web Weibo)
(Source: Screenshot of a treasure)
This is true even for big-name products, and many netizens are forced to make their own sauerkraut.
(Source: Screenshot of Weibo)
Brother Dian still wants to remind everyone: Pickling by yourself, pay attention to the method, otherwise it is easy to exceed the standard of nitrite.
“Healthy Hangzhou” has reported cases of poisoning due to eating pickles.
Uncle Zhang, a 52-year-old from Hangzhou, suddenly became grumpy after a meal, vomited continuously, became incontinent, and turned purple on his hands and lips. He was sent to the hospital emergency room and was told that it was “nitrite poisoning”, and the cause of the poisoning was pickles.
(Comparison of Lao Zhang’s palm and normal person. Source: Healthy Hangzhou)
If pickled vegetables such as sauerkraut are not properly pickled, the nitrite in them will affect the oxygen binding in the blood, causing the poisoned person to quickly experience symptoms of hypoxia , such as lips, nail beds, etc. turn brown, blue-brown, blue-black, chest tightness, suffocation, difficulty breathing and other symptoms, severe cases can be coma, shock, or even death.
If you want to be healthier and safer when pickling sauerkraut, studies have shown that: The best pickling time is about 20 days, At this time, nitrite will reduced to a relatively low level [1].
(Source: Reference 1)
Also, pay attention when pickling[1]:
1. Don’t put too much salt, to prevent the pickled sauerkraut from becoming bitter. The amount of salt added can be about 1.0% of the weight of the cabbage.
2. When taking sauerkraut, take it from top to bottom. The anti-sauerkraut has no pressure and naturally floats up and goes bad.
3. During the process of pickling sauerkraut, there should be no oil on any vessel, otherwise the sauerkraut will easily rot during the pickling process.
If it is bought sauerkraut, some people have studied to control the amount of nitrite by controlling the water temperature, soaking time, adding different doses of vitamin C and garlic, and making the sauerkraut cleaner. [2].
Study found:
1 kg of sauerkraut is added with water at a ratio of 1:4, then 1.2 grams of vitamin C and 45 grams of garlic are added, and soaked for 6 minutes at a water temperature of 40 degrees Celsius, nitrite can be reduced by 70.24% .
Of course, no matter how low the nitrite content of sauerkraut is, it is still unhealthy food after all.
Reviewers:
Kwong Fung Ruan
Director of Science and Technology, Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center
Pingping Liu
Registered Dietitian
References
[1]Wang Jinxin, Guo Hua, Diao Quanping, et al. Research on the pickling process of traditional Northeast sauerkraut and the formation law of nitrite [J]. Shandong Chemical Industry, 2017, 46(16): 2.
[2] Liu Yan, Sun Jianhua. Study on the rapid reduction of nitrite in sauerkraut[J]. Food Industry Science and Technology, 2005, 26(10):3.
Author: Zhao Yanan | Editors: Zhao Yanan, Wang Yan, Zhang Jie
Typesetting: Han Ningning | Proofreading: Wu Yihe
Operation: Li Yongmin | Coordinator: Wu Wei