Is the propylene glycol added to milk really toxic?

Author: Xu Jiaxian

Recently, the Qingyuan County Market Supervision Bureau of Zhejiang Province announced the 4th food spot inspection and inspection of the fourth issue of 2022. In this period, a brand of milk was detected by two unqualified of its pure milk. Added meol. This incident once again attracted the public's attention to food safety. So what is propylene glycol, why propylene glycol is added to pure milk, and why the state prohibits the addition of propylene glycol in pure milk? Let's take a look together.

First of all, what is propylene glycol? Pigbolly is a thick liquid of colorless, odorless, transparent, sedimentary and suspended. The molecular structure of propylene glycol is simple and is one of the small molecular alcohol. It is a tri -carbon compound containing two hydroxyl groups. In terms of chemical industry, propylene glycol has excellent nature as a solvent. In the food industry, propylene glycol is also widely used. According to national standards, in food, propylene glycol can play a role in stabilizing agent, coagulant, moisture holding agent and thicker agent. Therefore, propylene glycol can be added normally in cakes, dumpling skin, ravioli skin and other wet noodle products. of. At the same time, propylene glycol is an excellent solvent, and it is also an ingredient for synthetic spices allowed by the state to use. According to subsequent surveys, the reason why propylene glycol was found in pure milk was because the company illegally added fragrance to pure milk in order to enhance the flavor of the dairy product. Although this behavior does not have a great impact on consumers' health, a very serious business dishonest behavior. Imagine, can the pure milk with flavors be called pure milk?

Why do some experts say that propylene glycol is toxic? That's because in the human body, about 45%of propylene glycol will be discharged from the body through the kidneys, and the rest metabolized the lactic acid in the body. If the amount of consumption is too large, the lactic acid generated cannot be discharged in time, and it will accumulate in blood and kidneys, which will cause poisoning, disordinate, abdominal pain, decreased appetite, dizziness, and drowsiness, but it is more likely to treat and relieve it. In addition, the United States, the United States, the United States The Association of contact dermatitis has rated men glycol as the 2018 allergens, and estimated that 0.8%to 3.5%of people are allergic to propylene glycol.

However, comprehensive, propylene glycol is still a safer food additive. As mentioned above, the state allows the use of propylene glycol as a food additive in cakes and wet noodles. So, what is the effect of propylene glycol for food additives? First of all, propylene glycol can play a role in moisturizing. The propylene glycol that adds foods can be dissolved with water. At the same time, its chemical structure has better affinity for water molecules, which can slow down the speed of water molecular volatilization and achieve the effect of moisturizing, which can ensure that it can guarantee During the production for a period of time, food will not be unable to eat because of dryness; secondly, propylene glycol can be used as a stabilizer and a coagulator to achieve stable food structure or the food tissue structure is unchanged. The water holdings and smoothness are improved; propylene glycol can also be used as an emulsifier. When making food, the addition of propylene glycol can make water and oil be better mixed, thereby enhancing the taste and appearance of food.

At the moment when food safety issues are frequent, many people talk about the color change of "additives", and blindly pursue the so -called "pure green" and "no addition" foods. In fact, in the hundreds of years of human development of the food industry, we invented and used many food additives similar to propylene glycol. The legal and compliant use of these food additives allows us to eat more colorful foods without food safety, and also extend the shelf life of food. It can be said that our current diet cannot leave the food additive. What we really need to strictly crack down is illegal adding behaviors in food. What is urgent to regulate is the production and use of food additives. There are mainly the following situations in the problem of food additives in the current society:

If the source of food additives is unknown, if the additives that are not complied with production cannot meet the standards of food grade, it is likely that there is a chemical impurities that are harmful to the human body, which is very dangerous; In order to reduce costs, non -food -level raw materials are used, thereby producing unqualified additives; the most prone problem is the abuse of food additives. In order to make their food flavor better, the merchant attracts customers or reduce costs. It uses to use the cost. The additives forbidden to use the state or the excessive use of additives. These may cause serious food safety issues.

As the relevant standards of national food additives are more rigorous, the production and use of food additives will be more standardized. Of course, as consumers, we should strengthen self -protection awareness, understand more about food safety related knowledge, do not have to blindly buy "green" and "organic", let alone buy foods with too bright colors, excessive taste, and abnormal taste.

references:

1. The National Standard of the People's Republic of China GB 29216-2012 Food Safety National Standard Food Additives Portal

2. The National Standard of the People's Republic of China GB 2760-2014 Food Safety National Standard Food Additives Use Standards

428-439, ISSN 0003-9861, https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-9861 (58) 90090-0.4, Hong Weijie, Zhang Chaohui, Lu State Gong.Industry, 2005 (08): 5-7.

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