Since the university chose the food major, the canteen meal pays attention to the balanced diet; the fruit shop buys fruit fishing to observe the color of the fruit to infer the oxidation time; the supermarket buys snacks to check the ingredient list...
There are generally two tables on food packaging, one is the food ingredient list and the other is the nutrition facts table. Today, it is up to Xiaobian to give you a popular science about how to look at the ingredient list on the food bag.
The shorter the ingredient list, the better
The ingredient list is too long, and in addition to the raw materials, there must be a lot of extra ingredients added.
For example, this milk, which contains only raw milk (or organic) in its ingredient list, indicates that it is real milk.
Look at this ingredient list again, full of two rows. Among them, restored milk, water, and white sugar occupy the top three, which is obviously a milk blended drink (the name tells you that it is a concoction milk). It is a drink not "pure milk".
The order in which the ingredient list is arranged
According to the standards of GB7718-2021 "General Principles of Labeling Prepackaged Food", various ingredients should be arranged one by one in the order of decreasing amounts added when manufacturing or processing food; ingredients with an amount of no more than 2% can be arranged in an order of decreasing.
I believe that all the white-skinned and beautiful Liu Yifei Wu Yanzu usually drink yogurt, but do you really look at the yogurt ingredient list?
The first place on the ingredient list is actually water! This is followed by milk powder. Compared with yogurt made of raw milk, milk powder is sprayed and dried, and its content and activity are significantly reduced after high temperature. Vitamins, immunactive proteins, etc. are higher in raw milk.
Sisters who want to lose weight look here
Q: Many food ingredients clearly have the ingredients of trans fat, why is "zero trans fatty acid" written on the packaging?
A: Because according to the national standard GB7718-2021 "National Standard for Food Safety, General Rules for Prepackaged Food Nutrition Labeling", it is stipulated that when the content of trans fatty acids in food ≤ 0.3g/100g, it can be marked as "0" on the nutrition label. So even if the label says "0", it does not mean that there are really no trans fatty acids.
Note: Some oils also contain trans fatty acids, which are not health-friendly. Palm oil has more fat saturated acids and has an effect on blood lipids.
Q: Why do we generally have energy, protein, fat, carbohydrates, and sodium on the packaging?
Popular science tips: NRV% is a "nutrient reference value", which indicates a certain nutrient content contained in a portion of food, providing a percentage of the body's daily needs.
A: China's "Food Nutrition Labeling Management Specification" stipulates that most foods must be labeled with [1+4] items, because the intake of these five items is closely related to our nutritional problems and chronic diseases.
Popular science trivia --- food additives
1. Definitions
According to the provisions of China's Food Safety Law, food additives are artificial synthetic or natural substances added to food to improve the quality of food color, aroma, taste, etc., as well as for the needs of antiseptic and processing technology.
2. Classification
Food additives mainly include acidity regulators, anti-caking agents, defoamers, antioxidants, bleaching agents, leavening agents, colorants, colorants, color inhibitors, enzyme preparations, flavor enhancers, nutritional enhancers, preservatives, sweeteners, thickeners, fragrances, etc.
For example, preservatives include: benzoic acid and sodium benzoate for beverages, sauces, etc., sorbic acid and potassium sorbate for fish, poultry egg products and pastries.
Sweeteners: mainly sugar, honey, licorice, and starch syrup, fructose glucose syrup, glycosides, saccharins, sodium saccharin, abbass sweetener, acesulfame potassium and so on extracted from natural substances or processed by biotechnology.
Colorants: Natural pigments are: rose ashwagandha, beet red pigment, safflower yellow pigment, grape peel pigment, red yeast pigment and so on. Artificial colors are: amaranth red, red moss red, new red, lemon yellow, sunset yellow, indigo, bright blue and so on.
We can extract information directly from the food ingredient list and the nutrition facts list to clearly understand the ingredients and nutrients of the food. Most of the additions of food additives in food meet the standards and can be eaten.
Source: College of Food Science, Yunnan Agricultural University