Author: Meng Gang
Recently, the State Administration of Market Supervision issued a notice requiring strengthening the supervision of fruit wax and other fruit coating agents and severely cracking down on violations of laws and regulations. Summer is the season when fresh fruits and vegetables are on the market in large quantities, and the strengthening of supervision of fruit coatings has touched the sensitive nerves of people concerned about food safety issues. What is fruit coating? Is it harmful to the human body? Is there a national standard for its use? How to avoid the harm of illegal fruit coating products in daily life? To this end, the reporter conducted an investigative interview.
Commonly used for fruit preservation
Coating agents such as fruit wax are often applied to the appearance of fresh fruits, which can play a role in improving the appearance and preservation of freshness. The reporter recently learned from some fruit sellers that many of the fruits sold in the northern region are transported from the south, and in order to extend the "life" of the fruit, the vendors will more or less use the coating agent, commonly known as "waxing".
Fan Zhihong, associate professor of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety of the Food College of China Agricultural University, told reporters that apples and other fruits will have a layer of white fruit powder on the surface when harvesting, so the surface is not smooth, and it is only after manual treatment that it appears full and clean, especially after the surface is waxed, it will be much better to sell, and "vegetarian" fruits will often be disliked by consumers.
Fan Zhihong said that in fact, not only apples will be "beautified", many fruits will be coated with a protective film, which is commonly referred to as the food industry coating agent. It is a substance that can form a film covering the surface of food, which is applied to the surface of fruits and vegetables by impregnating, smearing, spraying and other methods, and forms a thin transparent film after air drying. Waxing fruits is a conventional method of fruit and vegetable preservation, which is beneficial for fruit preservation.
Ruan Guangfeng, director of the Science and Technology Department of the Food and Nutrition Information Exchange Center of Kexin, said that in the process of fruit transportation, waxing is not a new thing and is not an illegal act. It can inhibit the respiratory metabolism of fruits, reduce water loss, prevent mold infections, and prevent pests from stealing. For example, "waxing" apples can prevent moisture loss, solve the problem of skin shrinkage, prevent pest erosion, and prolong the storage time. Take oranges as an example, the biggest threat to oranges is mold, spraying liquid paraffin wax on oranges can deal with pervasive mold, orange preservation is very suitable, many countries in the world are widely used in this preservation method.
It is understood that in recent years, fruit wax and other coating agents have been widely used in citrus, apples, pears, nectarines, lemons and other fruits in the preservation. At the end of the 1980s, China also began to introduce fruit "waxing" technology, and developed different film products, such as morpholine fatty acid salt (also known as fruit wax), shellac wax liquid, carnauba wax and so on.
Harmless to standard use
According to the provisions of China's current "Food Additive Use Standards" GB2760-2014, it is allowed to "wax" fresh fruits, but not all film agents are allowed to be used for surface treatment of fresh fruits, and the "waxing" of fruits must be strictly in accordance with the scope of use and amount of use of the standard.
Experts pointed out that a qualified coating agent is actually a kind of fruit preservative, and there is no harm to the human body when used in quantity. The so-called "fruit preservatives", including film agents, do not belong to any of the 23 categories of additives listed by functional categories in the "Food Additive Use Standards", and the dosage of fruit preservatives such as film agents is clearly stipulated in national standards.
Ruan Guangfeng said that fruits can be "waxed", but "waxing" must comply with national regulations, such as only food-grade wax, and meet national standards. China's "Standards for the Use of Food Additives" stipulates that morpholine fatty acid salts, carnauba wax, etc. can be used as a film agent for the surface of fresh fruits, these ingredients are food additives, and rational use will not be harmful to the human body.
The reporter checked the national food safety standard "Food Additive Use Standard" and found that the standard listed a total of 22 kinds of additives that can be used in "fresh fruits" or "fresh fruits after surface treatment", and specified the dosage and residue amount. For example, carnauba wax as a coating agent is used in an amount of 0.4 mg/kg for fresh fruit, dichlorophenoxyacetic acid as a preservative for fresh fruits treated with surface treatment is 0.01 g/kg, the residual amount is 2 mg/kg, and the amount of sulfur dioxide is 0.05 g/kg.
However, experts said that the additives used for fruit preservation must control the dosage and residual amount within the scope of the national standard, and excessive use is harmful and unprofitable. If excessive use leads to excessive residues, not only will the quality of the fruit be affected, but the eater may also have symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, and even damage liver and kidney function.
Strictly control illegal raw materials
In recent years, some merchants or enterprises in order to reduce costs, illegally mix industrial paraffin into the fruit coating agent, in an attempt to use it for fruit "waxing", because industrial paraffin contains some heavy metals and harmful substances, added to the fruit coating agent will seriously endanger people's health.
Regarding the strengthening of supervision, the State Administration of Market Supervision pointed out that in recent years, market supervision departments at all levels have strictly supervised fruit wax and other fruit film products, and achieved certain results, but the existing industry risks can still not be ignored.
To this end, the State Administration of Market Supervision requires that for fruit wax and other fruit coating manufacturers that have obtained food production licenses, they should be urged to implement the main responsibility for food safety, organize production in strict accordance with laws and regulations and food safety standards, and strictly prohibit the use of raw materials of unknown origin or unqualified raw materials to produce fruit wax and other fruit coating products. Strengthen the supervision and inspection of production enterprises, focusing on the acceptance of raw materials procurement, production process management, product inspection, label identification and other contents of enterprises. Severely crack down on the use of industrial rosin resins and emulsifiers for the production of pesticides and other raw materials that do not meet food safety standards to produce fruit wax and other fruit coating products, and resolutely ban black dens and black workshops that are illegally produced and sold.
According to the reporter's understanding, it is easier to judge whether the apple is "waxed", but due to the lack of relevant detection methods, it is not easy to identify whether the fruit is covered with food-grade "wax coats" or industrial-grade "wax coats". Many consumers are worried that if the vendors do not understand the relevant regulations and use additives arbitrarily or illegally, it will inevitably bring many hidden dangers.
Relevant experts believe that the current supervision of the fruit field has not been very clear, the relevant departments are to pesticide residues as the main detection indicators, fruit film agents and other residue detection is basically not, the naked eye is difficult to distinguish whether the fruit surface is fruit wax or industrial wax, it is recommended that a reliable rapid detection method should be established.
Ruan Guangfeng advises consumers not to always pick good-looking fruits when picking fruits. At present, the cases of illegal use of industrial wax that have been exposed are mainly concentrated in some businesses to "process" ordinary fruits to pretend to be good-looking high-end fruits, so it is recommended that everyone buy fruits without blindly pursuing "high-end" fruits with bright colors; try to choose to buy from formal channels, fruits in these places will usually have strict supervision; if you are worried about "waxing", you can use more water to rinse when eating fruits, or peel and eat again.