The "doorway" in soy sauce is clear at once

Before the National Day holiday, a well-known condiment company caused a huge controversy, the reason is that the soy sauce it produces is suspected of "double standard": some netizens broke the news that the brand of soy sauce sold in China contains food additives, while the soy sauce sold abroad has zero additives, only water, soybeans, wheat, salt, etc.

This incident also triggered the anxiety of some netizens, everyone said that they did not know what soy sauce to eat, and they were also curious about how to look at the additives

What additives are added to soy sauce?

The main ingredients for any soy sauce are these four things: water, soybeans (soybeans or black soybeans), wheat (flour), and salt

The first category: sugar, fructose glucose syrup, sucralose and other sweet substances

Interpretation: Suquoise was first developed by the British, and the United States is its largest sales market

People know that when making salty dishes, putting a spoonful of sugar can make the taste more delicious and the taste more mellow

White sugar needless to say

Sucralose is a kind of sweetener, it has high sweetness, positive sweetness, and is licensed in China for more than 20 types of foods such as soy sauce

The second category: sodium glutamate, disodium 5'-flavored nucleotide (sodium inosinate and sodium guanylate), yeast extract and other freshening substances

Interpretation: Preservatives are not terrible, nor are they synthetic substances

Sodium glutamate is the MSG discovered by Japanese scholars in kelp extraction more than a hundred years ago

Yeast extract is a freshening product

In short, preservatives are not a terrible thing

The third category: sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, sodium dehydroacetate and other preservatives

Interpretation: It is to prevent the deterioration caused by mold exceeding the standard after the soy sauce is reduced by salt

Soy sauce contains more salt, and it has a certain bacteriostatic ability

In order to prevent this from happening, only a small amount of preservatives need to be added to help, and there is no risk of "excessive use" (after all, food additives also have to spend money to buy, and it is pointless to add more after achieving the effect).

Sorbic acid itself is a substance present in human metabolism and is even less toxic (semi-lethal) than table salt

For soy sauce, if you want to do it without adding preservatives, you need to add more salt; If salt reduction products are to be safe, they need to add preservatives

The fourth category: caramel pigments

Interpretation: It has long been widely used in other foods such as dim sum and cola

Caramel color is only added to old soy sauce products, and raw soy sauce is not added

The so-called caramel is the brown substance

Of course, there are different types of caramel pigments produced by modern industry, some used in beverages such as cola, some in bread snacks (such as Black Forest cakes, cocoa biscuits, etc.

Why is it not terrible to drink a lot of caramel pigment from Coke, not to be afraid to eat brown cookie snacks, and why is it so afraid to eat this caramel pigment in soy sauce?

How should soy sauce be chosen? Mainly look at these four points

The question now is how to choose soy sauce in the face of various types
.

Look at the amino acid nitrogen content of soy sauce

The grade of soy sauce is divided by "amino acid nitrogen"
.
It reflects the amount of amino acids produced in the soy sauce brewing process, and the umami taste of soy sauce, as well as nutritional value, are closely related, and can be said to be the "dry goods" index
of soy sauce.

Amino acid nitrogen ≥ 0.
40%: tertiary soy
sauce.

Amino acid nitrogen ≥ 0.
55%: secondary soy
sauce.

Amino acid nitrogen ≥ 0.
70%: first-class soy
sauce.

Amino acid nitrogen ≥ 0.
80%: extra grade soy
sauce.

Of course, some products have higher amino acid nitrogen levels, up to 1.
20%-1.
30%.

Such soy sauce is naturally of the highest quality, not only delicious taste, rich in taste, rich in aroma, theoretically, a variety of B vitamins and minerals and other nutritional value will also be higher
.

Looking at this indicator, it is much more reliable than shaking the bottle to see the foam (adding thickeners can make the foam rich), pouring on the food to see the dyeing effect (adding caramel pigment can be heavier), tasting umami taste with the tongue (adding more
MSG and sodium nucleotide salt can be fresher) and so on.

Look at the use of soy sauce

If you need a dish with a strong color to make braised dishes, choose soy sauce
.
If you want to stir-fry vegetables or cold mixed vegetables, if you want to taste fresh and refreshing in color, use soy sauce
.
Some soy sauce is a part-time type, not written whether it is old soy sauce or raw soy sauce, you can see if there is a "caramel color" in the ingredient list, if not, the coloring ability is not so strong
.

Look at the sodium content

For health-conscious consumers, reducing the sodium content of soy sauce is an important option
.

The nutritional profile of soy sauce usually uses "one serving" per 10 g/ml, or "one serving" per 15 g/ml
.
A spoonful of soy sauce is about 10 grams, so it is convenient to
label it this way.

Pay attention to the conversion of various products into 10 grams of amount, and then choose the lowest sodium content among the products with the highest nitrogen content in the amino acid state
.

For example, both products are "extra soy sauce"
.
Product A of amino acid nitrogen is 1.
20%, containing 495 mg of sodium per 10 g serving; Product B has an amino acid nitrogen of 0.
90% and contains 1132 mg of sodium per 15 g
serving.
Then, when all converted to 10 grams, the sodium content of product B is 754 mg
.
Obviously, product A has high amino acid nitrogen and low sodium content, which is better than product B
.

Look at the name of the product name

According to China's latest regulations, only pure brewed soy sauce products can be called "soy sauce"
.
If you add an ingredient similar to soy sauce that has not been brewed and is made by chemical hydrolysis or enzymatic hydrolysis, it cannot be called soy sauce, but can only be called "so-and-so seasoning liquid"
.
Therefore, consumers do not need to worry about using "prepared soy sauce" to impersonate brewed soy sauce
.

There are tips for using soy sauce,

It is recommended to cook and drizzle

When stir-frying vegetables with soy sauce, the most important technical point is: use high-quality soy sauce, start the pan and then drizzle the soy sauce, while reducing the amount
of other condiments.
Soy sauce has a strong flavor and contains a small amount of sugar and preservatives, so there is no need to add MSG chicken essence, sugar can be put less or not, and salt can also be reduced
.
The delicious taste and aroma of soy sauce are irreplaceable by salt + chicken essence
.
It will make it easier to season when stir-frying: no salt at all on the front, just add a spoonful or two of soy sauce when it comes out of the
pan.

There are four benefits to pouring soy sauce from the pot: First, avoid the soy sauce from going deep into the inside of the dish and affecting the color; The second is to avoid the soy sauce from being heated to produce a sparkling flavor and affect the flavor; The third is to let the salty taste adhere to the surface layer of the dish, temporarily without going deep inside, which can reduce the salt (sodium) by at least one-third under the premise of achieving the same salty feeling; Fourth, you can rely on a small amount of sugar in soy sauce to achieve a fresh and sweet feeling, without the need for a large spoon of sugar
.

In short, with soy sauce, you can easily reduce salt, sugar, and nutrients
.
Soy sauce contains a variety of B vitamins, potassium, magnesium and other nutrients, although the amount is small, a little
more.
Salt and sugar have no other nutrients except sodium and sugar
.

Don't pay too much attention to words like "zero addition", "head road", "special brew", etc

Besides, how to distinguish whether it is high-quality soy sauce, the best way is to look directly at the data, and various words such as promotional labels played by companies are not important
.

Here to explain, almost all of the food additives approved for use in China are varieties
licensed for use in other countries.
The so-called "foreign countries do not use food additives" is a complete rumor
.
Even if you can't understand English and Japanese, you can buy a bag of potato chips, buy a bottle of Coke, read the Chinese ingredient list behind, and see if there are food additives in the products produced by foreign companies
.

If you really mind food additives, you can buy organic soy sauce and "zero additive" soy sauce produced by major brands in China, and there is no problem
of "additive products sold domestically, additive-free products sold abroad".
If the supermarket can't buy it, you can buy it
directly online.
However, the so-called "zero additive" does not mean that the product is the safest, and it does not mean that the product is of the highest quality
.
(Edited by Li Chuang)