Are sea cucumber additives harmful?

Nowadays we often see a kind of freeze-dried sea cucumber on the market. Freeze-dried sea cucumbers all have additives added. Because the freeze-dried sea cucumbers nowadays are much drier than usual, they are freeze-dried after adding special additives. Some people cannot eat freeze-dried sea cucumbers, but some people can eat them. Although these additives may cause certain effects on the body, there is no problem for ordinary people to eat them.

Are sea cucumber additives harmful ?

The processing method of "freeze-dried sea cucumber" is different from other processing methods. It is to gut the live sea cucumber, remove the intestines, and then dehydrate it in the freeze-drying equipment. The formed freeze-dried sea cucumber looks thick and plump, and the size is much larger than the pure dried ones, but in fact most of them are made from relatively small live sea cucumbers (because these small live sea cucumbers will be very small when made into pure dried ones, and freeze-dried sea cucumbers look better). If sugar and salt are added in this process, only about 40-50 heads can be weighed per pound. The taste is not good either. The sea cucumbers that look big don't grow much after they are expanded, and even shrink back. They don't taste as chewy as dried sea cucumbers, but are soft and feel like eating fat.

Methods/Steps

“Sugar-dried” sea cucumbers pose the greatest potential harm to consumers. During the reporter's visit to Bajiao Village, most workshop-style processors and factory managers were evasive and would only tell you after repeated questioning, "This portion is made of dried sugar." Sugar-dried sea cucumbers are made by mixing sugar and salt in a certain ratio (the ratio of sugar to salt is generally 2:8, or even 3:7, 4:6 or higher). The sea cucumbers are soaked and boiled for a period of time and then dried. They are then soaked and boiled again several times to allow the sugar and salt to penetrate into the sea cucumber flesh, thereby achieving the purpose of weight gain. After the sugar-dried sea cucumber is formed, it turns black all over and has full flesh thorns. Some consumers are misled by unscrupulous merchants and think that this black sea cucumber "looks big and good" and is cheap, so they buy it home as a gift or to visit patients. In fact, it poses a potential threat to the health of the elderly or patients (especially diabetics).

The cost of freeze-dried sea cucumbers and sugar-dried sea cucumbers after weight gain is only less than 1,000 yuan per catty. Because of their low cost and good appearance, they are often the darlings of "exhibition goers" and market speculators. The selling price is often between 2,000 yuan and 3,000 yuan per catty or even lower. It seems very cheap to consumers, but in fact they can make two or three times the profit. After buying the products home, ordinary people find that they "don't expand" or "taste very sweet". When they go back to return them or argue, they find that these fraudsters have long since left. "Salt-dried" sea cucumbers are made by soaking fresh sea cucumbers in salt water or boiling them in salt water, so that the salt can penetrate into the sea cucumber flesh to increase its weight. Another common type of salt-dried sea cucumber has a layer of white salt grains on the surface.

The national quality standard (SC/T processing standard for dried sea cucumbers) stipulates that "it is prohibited to add any food additives other than salt when processing dried sea cucumbers", and makes detailed provisions on the proportion of added salt: dried sea cucumbers with a salt content of less than 12% are special-grade sea cucumbers, those with a salt content greater than 12% and less than or equal to 20% are first-grade sea cucumbers, those with a salt content greater than 20% and less than or equal to 30% are second-grade sea cucumbers, and those with a salt content greater than 30% and less than or equal to 40% are third-grade sea cucumbers. Salt content exceeding 40% is considered to exceed the salt standard, which is what we call "salted dried sea cucumbers". Both "sugar-dried" and "salt-dried" are very confusing, and it is difficult for ordinary consumers to distinguish them with the naked eye. During the reporter's visit, almost all sea cucumber workers said that "they can't tell at a glance whether it is pure light dried" and "it's not processed by themselves, so they have no idea". Only by looking at the degree of swelling of the sea cucumber during the soaking process can we basically judge whether it is "sugar-dried", "salt-dried" or "light dried". Therefore, we would like to remind our readers that sea cucumbers are precious food after all. When purchasing, do not trust the merchants’ sweet words or be tempted by low prices. The wool comes from the sheep, and it is better to sell than to buy. Make sure to make your purchase from a genuine and reliable sea cucumber store.