Seeing that it was the Spring Festival, the housewife began to handle the family's New Year's food, especially the snacks prepared for the children. However, although snacks are delicious, eating less is certainly not harmful to the body, especially in children who are still developing, it is possible to develop a bad habit of picky eating because of snacks.
Originally, the existence of snacks was beyond reproach, but a recent news had to make parents vigilant, that is, the children's favorite snacks such as grilled sausages, jellies, ice cream, etc., hid a "suspect substance" that may be harmful to health - carrageenan.
In 2016, the carrageenan contained in baby milk powder caused by carrageenan, which attracted widespread attention, and also brought carrageenan into everyone's field of vision.
Carrageenan is a hydrophilic colloid extracted from red seaweed, which has become an ingredient for making processed foods because of its functions of stabilization, thickening, and emulsification. At present, carrageenan is widely used in domestic food, including jelly, jam, chocolate, beverages, dairy products, etc., although it sounds natural and widely used, but the controversy caused by carrageenan is not small. The safety of carrageenan as a food additive has been controversial for decades in many research institutions and non-governmental organizations in Europe and the United States.
In recent years, with the improvement of food safety awareness, there have been endless reports of health hazards in carrageenan. It is not uncommon for news such as the addition of carrageenan in the crispy intestines to enhance the taste, and the addition of carrageenan to pet products to increase the viscosity.
Although everyone is just questioning? But is carrageenan really safe?
So far, no regulator has explicitly declared carrageenan safe. Many, including well-known scientists, doctors, and independent researchers funded by the public, have even become proponents of banning the addition of carrageenan to food.
According to the data, carrageenan can be divided into two types: degraded and non-degraded, and degradable carrageenan is used in animal experiments to test the anti-inflammatory reliability of new drugs and is considered a "possible human carcinogen". In order to ensure safety, in food grade carrageenan, the content of degraded carrageenan shall not be higher than 5%. Although there are regulations, there are few producers who can do this at the moment. The study found that 8 out of 12 food-grade carrageenan samples contained more than 5% degraded carrageenan.
Over the past few decades, researchers have also demonstrated the possible damage and risks to health caused by food-grade carrageenan in many ways, with about 3855 scientific papers showing that carrageenan causes inflammation and carcinogenic risks. "Consuming products containing carrageenan can obviously cause inflammation, and the amount of carrageenan in food is enough to cause such inflammation. Both degradable and non-degradable carrageenan can be harmful. Dr. A. Thompson, Associate Professor, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Illinois, Chicago. Joanne tobacman said.
In addition to researchers, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization's Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) have also evaluated carrageenan and have concerns about the use of carrageenan in food. The eu's latest retrial of carrageenan also said that it is not recommended to use carrageenan in infant formula, including baby food for special medical purposes, which shows that the previous concerns about the possible carrageenan in infant milk powder are actually reasonable, after all, it is necessary to prevent problems before they occur.
Now, out of the request of consumers, there are already many foods that do not contain carrageenan abroad, but in Chinese food, carrageenan is still used very frequently in foods that children like, such as ham sausage, drinks, milk, jelly, beef jerky, fudge, etc. Although people are not aware of this, the "health bomb" has been buried in these tempting foods and drinks.
Now that the Spring Festival is approaching, I also hope that when you buy snacks for your children, you should pay attention to the ingredient list in the food label, try to stay away from carrageenan, and avoid the adverse effects that may be brought to the health of your children.
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