Source: Life Times
Cooking oil plays an important role in our diets, not only bringing delicious food to our tables, but also closely related to health. China's edible oil varieties are relatively rich, the survey shows that in 2018, soybean oil and rapeseed oil consumption accounted for 43.1% and 22.1%, followed by palm oil, peanut oil, sunflower oil and so on. Olive oil from the Mediterranean Sea has also quietly become popular because of its good anti-cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease effect, and its consumption has squeezed into the top ten. In the view of nutrition experts, China's unique camellia oleifera seed oil (commonly known as tea oil) is not inferior to olive oil in nutrition, and scientific consumption is also beneficial to the prevention of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, but it is affected by factors such as low yield and expensive price, and is ignored by the majority of consumers.
Camellia oleifera trees are full of tea fruits.
Nutritional value is not lost to olive oil
"The nutritional value of tea oil is good!" Fan Zhihong, associate professor of the College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering of China Agricultural University, said that tea oil is clear and fragrant, and it is also resistant to storage, which is a high-quality oil. From the perspective of fatty acid composition, each 100 grams of tea oil contains 10 grams of saturated fatty acids, 78.8 grams of monounsaturated fatty acids, and 11.1 grams of polyunsaturated fatty acids, of which unsaturated fatty acids mainly include oleic acid (78.8%), linoleic acid (10%), and linolenic acid (1.1%). Tea oil is also rich in bioactive ingredients such as vitamin E, carotene, and squalene.
Animal experiments have shown that tea oil can reduce the level of total cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood, and inhibit the formation of fatty liver and atherosclerosis. This may be related to its richness in monounsaturated fatty acids. Studies have found that monounsaturated fatty acids are beneficial for improving blood lipid patterns and reducing the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. To its credit, tea oil has a slightly higher monounsaturated fatty acid content than olive oil.
Because tea oil is rich in unsaturated fatty acids and has a good antioxidant effect, it can be used as a pharmaceutical carrier oil after special process refining, and is widely used in skin care products.
From wild to contracted, the camellia oleifera industry has begun to take shape
Camellia oleifera is a woody oleetary plant unique to China and is a treasure bestowed by nature on the land of China. According to records, camellia oleifera has a history of cultivation and consumption in China for 2300 years, and the planting area and camellia oleifera fruit in Hunan, Jiangxi and Guangxi are the largest. Except for Thailand and Japan, which have a small number of planting areas, other countries and regions do not have the geographical and natural conditions for the growth of camellia oleifera trees. At present, more than 90% of the global tea oil production comes from China, which is known as the "Oriental Olive Oil".
On September 15, at the Demonstration Base of Chen Erlang Oil Tea Planting in Linli County, Chairman Tian Hua introduced the tea fruits that will ripen to reporters.
In the southwest of Linli County, Changde City, Hunan Province, at the foot of Taifu Mountain, there is Chen ErXiang, which is the birthplace of Linli tea oil. In mid-September, the reporter came to Changchong Village, Linli County, and visited the tea oil production enterprise Chen Erlang,000 acres of oil tea tree planting demonstration base. The reporter walked into the base and saw that the tall, short, thick and thin oil tea trees were full of red tea fruits. Chairman Tian Hua told reporters that before the liberation, these wild oil tea trees grew here, but they were dense, overgrown with weeds, and there were many pine trees mixed in, resulting in very unstable tea and fruit production. Later, under the leadership of Chen Erlang Oil Tea Cooperative, more than 130 farmers contracted these oil tea trees to be responsible for daily maintenance and picking. In order to improve the production of tea fruits, the cooperative regularly conducts technical training for farmers, and the base currently produces more than 50 kilograms of tea oil per mu per year. Thanks to tree species, climate and other factors, the quality of tea fruits here is relatively good, and its pricing has become a bellwether for the price of tea fruits in the country.
The Oil Tea Cultivation Professional Cooperative is covered with planting knowledge.
Referring to the origin of the brand name "Chen Erlang", Tian Hua said that in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, there was a talented man named Chen Erlang in Xing'an Village, Chen Erxiang, who was diligent and studious, witty and clever, filial piety and love for the elderly, punishing evil and promoting good, and was known as "Avanti of Jiangnan". His legend has been passed down by word of mouth and has been listed as an intangible cultural heritage protection project in Changde City. The creation of the Chen Erlang brand is to better sing the story of Chen Erlang, carry forward the spirit of Chen Erlang, and create an excellent brand of native regional agricultural products.
Xiong Jinwu, director of the Linli County Forestry Bureau, briefed reporters on the development of the oil tea industry in the county. He said that Linli County has 291,000 mu of camellia oleifera forests; in 2019, the county produced 9,500 tons of camellia oleifera seeds and 2,600 tons of tea oil, with an output value of 508 million. In recent years, the county party committee and county government have vigorously promoted the development of the oil tea industry, invested a lot of money and driven social capital, newly made 58,000 mu of oil tea, and transformed 120,000 mu of low-yield forests of oil tea. At present, Linli has become one of the 24 core counties for the development of the camellia oleifera industry in Hunan Province, giving key support. According to the data released by the Hunan Provincial Forestry Bureau, in 2019, the area of camellia oleifera forests in Hunan Province reached 21.6998 million mu, the output of camellia oleifera seeds was 1.1 million tons, and the output value of camellia oleifera, planting area, camellia oleifera seeds and tea oil production remained the first in the country.
There are several issues that need to be addressed urgently for development
In order to accelerate the development of woody oilseeds such as camellia oleifera, in 2014, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Development of the Woody Oilseed Industry", and the local governments of the main oil-producing areas such as Hunan, Jiangxi and Guangxi have also introduced corresponding plans, prompting the Camellia oleifera industry to enter a period of rapid development. However, at present, tea oil is not popular nationwide, and the public in the area north of the Yangtze River has a low awareness rate of tea oil; at the same time, the annual output of tea oil is small, which is difficult to meet the domestic market demand. The reporter found that tea oil on the table of ordinary people's homes needs to be solved.
The investment cycle is long, how to ensure the enthusiasm of planting? A camellia oleifera sapling grows for 3 to 5 years before it will bear fruit, the 4th year begins to produce income, the 5th year can maintain the operating costs of the year, and no matter how well managed it is, it will take 7 to 8 years to enter the production period, and the forest turnover and daily maintenance need to invest funds, and the planting threshold is high. Tian Hua said that from planting to income, each household needs to invest 6,000 yuan per mu, but the economic income period is more than 50 years, and the overall input-output ratio is considerable. Before generating revenue, the government and enterprises may consider adopting supportive policies to encourage farmers to plant scientifically.
Varieties are uneven, how to increase yield? The variety is an important factor in determining the yield of camellia oleifera trees, and the tree species used by "Chen Erlang" in Linli County is the local old tea tree species "HanLuzi", in order to increase the yield, the transformation of low-yield forests and new afforestation are being carried out. An industry insider briefed reporters on the situation across the country. He said that the national low-yield forest area of camellia oleifera is large, about 30 million mu, most of the mu of tea oil is about 5 kg / mu; in the past 10 years, the national camellia oleifera planting area has increased by more than 2 million mu per year, a cumulative increase of nearly 20 million mu, and the high-yield camellia oleifera forest produces 30 to 50 kg / mu of oil during the peak fruiting period. The transformation of the old forest is also being carried out at the same time. After the transformation, due to the lack of income in the first two years, some farmers do not cooperate, for this reason, in 2020, the central financial transfer payment special fund of 800 million yuan for the transformation of old forests, many local governments have also introduced subsidy policies to promote industrial development.
Most of them are naturally cultivated by human species, how to make planting knowledge land? Tian Hua said that the tea trees in the Chen Erlang oil tea planting base were subcontracted to the farmers to take care of, and at first many people held the concept of "human breeding and natural cultivation", and the production management was extensive, so that most tea trees were in a wild or semi-wild state, and the fruit hanging rate was not good. To this end, they organized farmers to concentrate on learning the cultivation techniques of high yields, and the village radio will also broadcast the knowledge of oil tea. The shortage of professional talents is a short board in the development of the oil tea industry, and forestry and grass science and technology personnel should be encouraged to take root in the grassroots, spread the kinetic energy of innovation to the field, and drive the "first-line" planting technology.
Without a reference processing model, how to establish a standardized production process? The price of tea oil remains high, in addition to the high cost of planting and maintenance of woody plants, processing is also one of the reasons. Since tea oil is a special edible oil in China, there is no international reference processing mode. More than a decade ago, due to the imitation of herbal edible oil processing methods, pressing not only caused waste of raw materials, but also led to the loss of nutrients. At present, most enterprises still use traditional pressing technology, most of the tea meal is not comprehensive utilization, the waste of resources is larger; the deep processing and comprehensive utilization of by-products are also insufficient, and the development of health-grade tea oil and tea oil cosmetics is still in its infancy, and it is urgent to introduce a set of standard processes as soon as possible, otherwise the price is difficult to be close to the people.
Lack of industry leaders, how to form a brand effect? At present, the state's support for camellia oleifera focuses on planting, and the market is in its infancy. There are more than 2,000 camellia oleifera processing enterprises in the country, less than 100 enterprises above medium scale, and the processing enterprises are generally small in scale, not well-known in terms of popularity, and lack of well-known brands, resulting in bad bidding and product quality problems in the industry. Although this is an inevitable stage of development, it is also a problem that must be solved. It is recommended to promote "public brands" and build leading enterprises, which can strengthen the brand effect; regulate oil tea advertising according to law, and severely crack down on false and exaggerated propaganda. If the management is in place, it can also help the supervision of tea oil quality, ensure the market share of real tea oil and good tea oil, and create a healthy industrial environment.
Tea oil is not the more "soil" the better
Tea tree is a tree species that "holds the child and conceives", flowers and fruits at the same time, and the flowers and fruits are continuous throughout the year. After entering the peak production period, in March every year, the tea fruit under the flowering "sitting" of the previous year expanded for the first time; in May and June, the flower buds began to emerge; wait until July and August, the small tea fruits grew rapidly, turning from green to red; after about 3 months, the white flowers and red fruits would hang all over the treetops. Most of the tea fruits are picked artificially during the cold dew season, when the oil content of the tea fruits is the highest. After harvesting, most farmers will leave a part of the tea and fruit to dry well, and when the "soil press" is turned on, they will squeeze the oil themselves. In their view, seeing tea fruits squeezed into oil is more reassuring than buying in the supermarket, and the price is much cheaper, but there are hidden health risks.
Before pressing the oil, the tea fruit needs to go through the process of picking, drying, storage, etc. If which link is not done in place, the tea fruit may be moldy and produce aspergillus aflex. In formal and large-scale processing plants, the oil making process is divided into cold pressing and hot pressing, both of which need to first dehull the tea fruit, crush it into tea seed powder, and then press the oil according to the standard procedure. Soil pressing method is similar to hot pressing, the tea seed powder into a "tea cake", after steaming, frying, and then pressing out the oil, but the temperature of the whole process is not easy to control, if more than 250 ° C, it may produce some carcinogens, which is not good for health.
In addition, most of the "soil presses" have poor sanitary conditions, and there is no strict cleaning, disinfection and sterilization conditions, which can cause the impurities of soil press tea oil to increase and the safety to decrease. In recent years, due to the rise in the price of tea oil, the people have room for profit, and soil pressed oil has increasingly flowed to the market. The state stipulates that the outer packaging of edible oil for sale must be marked with ingredient list, quality grade, net content, shelf life, etc. Soil pressed oil is basically not available and cannot be sold. For the earth press, it is necessary to strengthen supervision in the future, and many major production areas have carried out the improvement of the earth press.
In the interview, experts reminded that there are more health and health risks in the "soil press", so it is not recommended to squeeze oil yourself, but should buy products from large manufacturers, and the quality is more secure. Although tea oil is good, it is also necessary to control the amount of consumption, and the cooking oil per person per day needs to be controlled at 25 to 30 grams. Refined tea oil has good flavor, resistance to storage, high temperature resistance, suitable for use as stir-fry oil.