Chestnuts are "shiny" because paraffin wax is added?

The sugar stir-fried chestnuts rustling on the side of the road always give a sweet and warm feeling
with heat and aroma.
But is it true that some merchants have recently added paraffin wax and sweeteners to increase the luster and sweetness of chestnuts to enhance the appearance of chestnuts?

Why chestnuts are "glamorous"

It is understood that stir-frying chestnuts with maltose is a more authentic way, but most businesses use white sugar or brown sugar
.
Such food-grade sugar can be made into syrup, added to the stir-frying process, the melted sugar will be wrapped on the surface of the chestnut, which can prevent the dried chestnuts from evaporating during the stir-frying process, and can also fill the gap between the black sand, the chestnut is heated more evenly, and the Maillard reaction generated at high temperature will also make the color of the chestnut more vivid
.

So, is paraffin really better than traditional syrup? To this end, the Nanjing Market Supervision Bureau of Jiangsu Province conducted a group experiment: the chestnuts were randomly divided into two parts, one was stir-fried with low-concentration syrup, and the other group was stir-fried with paraffin wax
.
The results showed that the chestnuts stir-fried with low-concentration syrup were bright and bright, but the chestnuts stir-fried with paraffin wax were not only bright but also uniform
in color.

If you increase the concentration of syrup, will it increase the brightness of chestnuts? The experimental results show that although the brightness of chestnuts fried with high concentration of syrup is comparable to that fried by paraffin, the color is uneven and the surface is
sticky.
In general, chestnuts stir-fried with high-concentration syrup are inferior to chestnuts stir-fried with paraffin
.

Can you add paraffin to chestnuts fried with sugar?

According to the requirements of the National Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Additives (GB 2760-2014), food-grade paraffin can only be used
as a processing aid.
In the food production process, there should be a necessity of process when using, paraffin wax is a release agent, the scope of use is candy, baked goods, and chestnut stir-frying has no process necessity, so it is not allowed to be added
in the chestnut stir-frying process.

Chestnuts are "too sweet" because of sweeteners?

In the market, some merchants will replace food-grade sugar with sodium saccharin or cyclamate, the sweetness of sodium saccharin is about 500 times that of sucrose, and the sweetness of cyclamate is about 50 times that of sucrose, which can greatly save production costs
.
After experimental comparison, the chestnut case after stir-frying with sweetener is sweet and greasy, and the aftertaste is bitter; After stir-frying with syrup, the chestnuts have a strong caramel aroma, moderate sweetness, and a sweet
taste.

In addition, the key to the sweetness of chestnuts also lies in the selection of raw materials, such as Hebei Qianxi chestnut, which is generally naturally ripe, so the sugar content is relatively high, the moisture is less, and it tastes sweet and soft
.

When buying chestnuts, you need to polish your eyes

Nanjing Market Supervision Bureau reminds consumers that they should choose regular supermarkets when buying chestnuts, and save the corresponding shopping vouchers to avoid food safety risks
.
In addition, pay attention to the following points
when buying chestnuts.

Be careful
if the color is too bright.
The chestnuts are stir-fried with maltose and vegetable oil, normal in color and "not excessive"
.
If the appearance is too bright and the color does not fade after a period of time, be wary of adding paraffin
.
In addition to observing the color, you can wipe it with a paper towel before buying, and if there is no oil stain, you can buy
it with confidence.

Be careful
with smooth and non-sticky hands.
Normal chestnuts are sticky to the touch and not particularly smooth
.
If the appearance of the chestnut is too yellow and bright, it is very smooth to the touch, which may be caused by
the addition of paraffin.

Be careful
when soaking "oil" in warm water.
Paraffin wax will melt into oil in water above 50°C
.
Purchased chestnuts can be soaked in hot water, and paraffin
may be added if there is oil floating on the surface of the water.

Be careful
when it's sweet before it's astringent.
Before buying chestnuts, you can taste them, if the chestnuts are sweet first and then astringent, it may be "saccharin chestnuts"
.

Chestnuts that open their mouths should be eaten
sparingly.
Chestnuts are not easy to be fried, and the mouth of the chestnuts that are manually cut is uniformly regular
.
Open chestnuts will be more sticky after stir-frying in sugar, and they will also be more likely to be contaminated with dust or other harmful substances (such as paraffin).

(Editor Li Chuang)