The use of new standards for food additives to implement moon cakes

As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, the sales of moon cakes are getting better and better. In the face of a dazzling array of moon cakes, many attentive consumers have found that this year's mooncakes are slightly different from previous years. For example, Bing Lian Rong and other fillings are even more “dim”; shelf life seems to be shorter than the previous two years, and more than two months or even three months are rare; and there are also fewer fruit taste varieties that people like. Not as good as before...

The newly implemented National Food Safety Standard for Food Additives (GB2760-2011), which was implemented on June 20 this year, is widely considered to be one of the important reasons for the change of moon cakes. Then, what are the changes in the use of food additives between the old and new standards? What are the specific effects on mooncake production? This year's moon cake "changing face" is a bit different? In the past few days, the reporter visited a number of moon cake production and sales companies and quality inspection agencies in the city.

The new standards implementation of moon cake-related indicators almost no adjustment "In fact, the new standards for the use of food additives on the moon cake has changed little." Experts from the Municipal Quality Inspection Center Food Quality and Safety Testing Center come straight to the surface, the 2007 version of the "Food Additives Hygienic Standard" and 2011 The biggest change from the revised edition of the “Standards for the Use of Food Additives for Food Safety National Standards” in the annual edition is that the new standard deletes “Table A.2 Allowable Additives and Uses in Food” in the old standard.

“The deleted Table A.2 lists the scope of use and the amount of food additive used in the food category. It is a change in the standard system structure.” The expert explained that it does not mean that the type and use of food additives have occurred. a big change. According to China's food additive use regulations, only the additives listed in the standard are allowed to be added in the specified amount of food.

From the perspective of food categories, moon cakes mainly involve two food categories. One is cakes, because moon cakes are a variety of cakes, and the second is fillings. Baking food fillings are specifically classified. Experts and reporters together compared the old and new standards on the use of some food additives. Taking sweetener sodium saccharin as an example, the old standard allows adding in cakes. The maximum amount used is 0.15g/kg, which cannot be added in fillings. In the new standard, this standard of use has not been adjusted. The standard is exactly the same.

Looking at the preservative sorbic acid and its potassium salt, the old standard allows cakes and fillings to add up to 1 gram per kilogram. The new standard is the same. The reporter also carefully compared several other preservatives that the old standard allowed for cakes to, and several other preservatives that allowed fillings to be added. The new standard did not make any adjustments. Experts believe that, in general, the new standard food additives use regulations have little effect on mooncakes.

Then, what is going on in the market for mooncakes that are "selling ugly," "shorter life," and "taste less?" Faced with this reporter’s doubts, food experts and the person in charge of several mooncake production enterprises in the city unanimously agreed that as long as they continue to innovate in technology, moon cakes will not undergo such changes. Some small businesses are limited to the level of technology. These changes have occurred in moon cakes produced. They may be affected by rising costs. They may also have increased awareness of the company's food safety and are more cautious in the use of food additives.

"Selling ugly"

Synthetic pigments are used more cautiously to say that moon cakes "sell phase change ugly" is nothing more than appearance and filling color changes. “If we must say that the use of new standards for food additives has an impact on mooncakes, then the strict control of the use of flour whiteners is one of the most important effects.” The person in charge of a Ningbo Food Co., Ltd. said that now everyone knows that flour is not whiter. The better, the flour used for moon cake making is indeed a bit "dimmed" than before.

“However, this does not affect the appearance of mooncake cakes. In particular, Cantonese-style moon cakes, the appearance of color depends mainly on the use of alkaline water, that is, the process of alkaline water to adjust the pH of the cake.” Has 30 years experience in food and beverage industry Hu Xiangdong believes that there are no major changes in the appearance of Su-style moon cakes.

Some consumers have found that this year's moon cake is not as white as before, and the fruit filling is not as bright as before. A person who has been engaged in moon cake sales for many years believes that this is because consumers are highly concerned about food safety this year, and the regulatory authorities crack down on illegal use of additives. Faced with this situation, filling companies are more cautious, and their use is rather lower than the new standard. The upper limit naturally leads to a color that is not as bright as in previous years.

The person in charge of several mooncake production companies believes that the process is the most critical. Relevant person in charge of a Ningbo Food Co., Ltd. said that the company has now developed a hot water bleaching lotus root technology, can also produce crystal clear white lotus root, all kinds of flavor fillings can also use natural foods with vivid colors, such as Purple purple potatoes, coffee beans, etc.

"Life shortened"

Long shelf life is not equal to preservatives In recent years, with the increase of consumers' food safety awareness, preservatives have become one of the food additives that many citizens try to avoid. Many food companies have also eliminated the use of preservatives through process improvement. . This year, consumers have also focused their attention on moon cakes with a short shelf life and found that the “lifespan” has become shorter.

Isn't all mooncakes in the market "short-lived"? "Our moon cakes are still 60 days shelf life." The relevant person in charge of Nanyuan Food Co., Ltd. said that the long shelf life of moon cakes does not mean that the amount of preservatives is much more, and all aspects of the production and processing of moon cakes will affect the shelf life. Only the craft passes through. In order to truly guarantee the quality of moon cakes.

“In addition to a few food additives brought by the purchased fillings themselves, the baked moon cakes can be processed without adding any preservatives.” The expert told the reporter that the moon cakes must not be in direct contact with the skin and saliva of the production workers after baking. It must be insulated with multiple layers of masks and gloves. The moon cakes are cooled to 50-60 degrees Celsius for packaging. This is an important process.

According to food experts, after more than two hundred degrees of high-temperature baking of moon cakes, moldy deterioration, bacterial reproduction of the main factors are water and oxygen, therefore, the current moon cake packaging process is mainly for these two. The independent plastic film packaging can insulate the outside from oxygen intrusion, and the deoxidizer of the small package can also inhibit the generation of oxygen by the bacteria.

"Moisture cake moisture control is also very critical, too wet and easy to degenerate, too dry will cause the moon cake is too hard, bad taste." Experts believe that according to the current domestic leading level of technology, without adding preservatives, moon cake storage Half-yearly deterioration is entirely possible.

“The shorter shelf life is a self-protection of the company.” Experts said that the company’s willingness to use preservatives is also significantly reduced, and people will not make jokes about brands that are not easy to create.

"Taste less"

The cost and risk determine how many varieties are the same as the previous two “changes”, and the level of processing technology is also one of the important reasons that determine the decrease of moon cake flavor varieties. Taking fruit flavors as an example, there are two main production processes: First, using winter gourd flavored with coloring agents and seasoning spices and flavors to make a variety of fruit flavors, the cost is relatively low; Second, direct use of fruit jams to make fillings The relatively high cost, but also useful for the replacement of spices and spices jam.

One person in the industry believes that food safety risks associated with the addition of food flavors are much higher than those of jams. On the other hand, the cost of the latter is significantly higher than the former. Many moon cake manufacturers that compete with low prices can only be forced to give up fruit moon cakes. Chen Xiaohui, who has been immersed in the food and beverages industry for more than 30 years, said that this year's food safety incident was accompanied by beef paste, plasticizers, and nuclear radiation. These may be potential safety hazards. They strictly control raw materials and reduce meat, matcha, and seafood. Taste varieties are also self-protected by the company.

Related news Seeing food safety from moon cake production In 2011, several food safety whirlwinds have been scraped. The reporter found during the interview that a number of moon cake manufacturers further strengthened food safety management, raised food safety awareness, and ensured that their own products were safe and reliable with practical means and methods.

“In what kind of environment the egg-bearing ducks live in, and what kind of feed they eat, we know for sure.” A person in charge of a food company said that their control of food safety has been extended to the source of the source. Take the moon cake of Yulian Lian as an example. We must not only inspect salted egg yolk processing companies, but also study the breeding base of ducks: “The environment of 1,000 mu of paddy fields is clean and beautiful, with group of mallard ducks feeding leisurely or playing on the water.”

For outsourced fillings, the company also sent out special inspection teams this year. During the days of suppliers' production of mooncake fillings, there were people monitoring. Each batch of fillings must undergo inspection and inspection by the quality supervision department. This year, new plasticizers and other testing contents have been added. All of them are qualified before they can be put into production, otherwise they will be returned immediately.

Staff training is the most difficult part of quality and safety control. In a food company, General Manager Guang explains to employees that it took them a full two hours to wash their hands. “Moon cake quality and safety management is a systematic project, and every aspect cannot be sloppy. Every detail cannot be ignored.” The person in charge said that many employees are from rural areas. In addition to healthy physical examination, it is first to change their health concepts and habits. Step, two hats, two gloves, two masks, sterile uniforms without buttons, are the most basic staff equipment.

Fully isolated production workshop, full stainless steel automatic or semi-automatic production line, real-time coverage of multi-camera monitoring system, responsibility for the implementation of any equipment parts in the workshop, in the interview, the reporter found that many Ningbo moon cake manufacturing companies have these hardware devices Or software management system, some companies also introduced humane intimate services to solve the worries of employees, so that employees concentrate on their work to ensure food quality and safety. (Zhou Zheng Zheng Lei)

The fact that there is no food additive in the fact that there is no food additive in the outer package "Tibetan" suggests that there can be no food industry today. Citizens cannot see a wide range of foods in the supermarket. Food experts say that small amounts of food additives are safe for the human body. Without having to talk about the change of food additives, it is also reasonable for the public to clearly and clearly consume. In this regard, experts also pointed out that China's current laws and regulations include labeling of food packaging labels into the scope of food safety supervision. Labeling unqualified means that food is unqualified. Therefore, labeling on the outer package is a good way for consumers to identify and compare foods.

When purchasing mooncakes, if the production company separates the moon cakes and fillings from the ingredient list, it is obviously more sincere than the companies that mix the two together. Consumers can also make their own choice by carefully comparing the types of food additives in moon cakes. According to the regulations, the ingredients must be arranged in order from the largest to the least. Not only moon cakes, other foods can also be found through the packaging of the discovery of the truth of food ingredients, for those labels are not standard or even labeled food, consumers are best to "look away."