In early December, it is the season when a large number of sea cucumbers are listed, and sea cucumbers in Shandong, Liaoning and other places are constantly entering the Shanghai market. Due to the different quality, specifications and breeding methods, the price of sea cucumbers is also different, the most expensive sea cucumbers sell for nearly 10,000 yuan a catty, and cheaper sea cucumbers also have to buy a thousand yuan a catty. But recently some netizens exclaimed that she can buy a pound of "sea cucumber" for forty or fifty yuan, which is both large and fat, and it looks very good. Another netizen responded that she bought the same "sea cucumber" that sold the same, but sold for less than 30 yuan a pound.
Is it so hard to really have such a good thing? To this end, the reporter specially sent the photos of the "sea cucumber" purchased by netizens to Liu Guangbin, an associate researcher at the Shandong Academy of Marine Biology, to identify, Liu Guangbin said that most of the domestic consumption of sea cucumbers refers to thorn ginseng (scientific name imitation thorn ginseng), which is a kind of sea cucumber, that is, the appearance of the ginseng has a pointed "thorn", even if it is not a thorn ginseng, the sea cucumber has its basic characteristics, the "sea cucumber" does not meet the basic characteristics of the sea cucumber, obviously a fake sea cucumber.
According to Liu Guangbin, there are many types of sea cucumbers, there are about 1,000 species in the world, of which about 40 are edible, and there are about 140 kinds of sea cucumbers in China, of which 10 kinds of edible economic value are higher. Edible sea cucumbers in the northern part of China generally only have thorn ginseng, and in the southern region, there are plum ginseng, rough ginseng and so on. Ginseng is rich in nutrients and belongs to health care products, so most citizens and families like to buy ginseng to eat.
The thorns are long strips, thick in the body wall, and have spines on the outside, that is, "thorns", and there are 4 to 6 rows of "thorns" that grow on the back. The abdomen of the stingray has a protruding little by little, called a tube foot straw. Ginseng has an opening and anus at both ends, and its color is black, green, yellow and brown, mainly brown, and there are very few white ginseng. If it is a dried sea cucumber (including thorn ginseng), it has an incision in its abdomen, generally no more than 1/3 of the total length.
"In 2018, Shandong produced about 100,000 tons of ginseng per year, and the total output of ginseng in the country, including Shandong and Liaoning, exceeded 170,000 tons, and it is estimated that the output of natural ginseng is less than 1/10 of the total output." Liu Guangbin said that the cultivation of ginseng mainly has three methods: factory culture, pond culture and sea bottom sowing culture, of which the growth environment of sea bottom seeded ginseng is close to that of natural sea cucumber, and the price is higher. At the same time, ginseng is divided into two kinds of fresh ginseng and dried ginseng, fresh ginseng is the ginseng caught after breeding, dry ginseng is steamed, dried or dried ginseng, dry thorn participation in the work to add an appropriate amount of salt, so that it is easy to store.
"Generally about 30 pounds of fresh ginseng to make 1 kg of dried ginseng, the lowest cost of dried ginseng is more than 1800 yuan, even if the unscrupulous businessman mixes iron filings, sand and other impurities in the ginseng, boiled or added with gum for many times, it is at least nearly 1 kilogram of nearly 1,000 yuan, so it is impossible to spend dozens of yuan to buy 1 kilogram of dried ginseng."
Liu Guangbin pointed out that whether it is thorn ginseng or other varieties of sea cucumber, the appearance color has a slight difference, and the "sea cucumber" color on the photo is unified; the real sea cucumber has 5 muscles in the body, while the "sea cucumber" in the photo does not; the real sea cucumber has a mouth and anus at both ends, and the "sea cucumber" on the photo also does not; the real sea cucumber abdomen incision is generally within 1/3, and the "sea cucumber" opening on the photo is very large.
The "sea ginseng" in the photo does not have thorns, while the real ginseng has "thorns" on the surface of the body, which obviously cannot be thorn ginseng. In addition, there is a ring-shaped calcareous plate under the surface of the mouth of the ginseng, called the lime ring, which is generally taken out before eating, and the lime ring without the lime ring will not be the ginseng. From this, Liu Guangbin deduced that the "sea cucumber" in the photo is a fake sea cucumber processed with some gum. (Source: Jiefang Network Author: Xie Kewei)