In December, did you catch the import rumors


Is eating crabs and tomatoes equal to eating arsenic? Mothers carefully select baby milk powder for their babies, and the testing agency announces that it contains mineral oil. Can you rest assured to eat it? Eating nuts is good for many people. Recently, it has been reported that it has thrombolytic function? Every once in a while, rumors in the guise of science will come out. It's winter and the weather is getting colder, but these rumors haven't been "cool".


It's also a good time of year to eat crabs. The fat hairy crabs are delicious. While enjoying delicious food, if you see that eating hairy crabs and tomatoes together is equal to eating arsenic, do you still have an appetite?


Children's milk powder is inedible due to mineral oil. Nuts have thrombolytic function Every once in a while, some rumors in the guise of science will spread on the Internet. So, how true are these rumors? In this issue, we ask relevant experts to clear the fog and restore the truth.


Rumors


Can't children's milk powder contain mineral oil?


Truth: mineral oil is ubiquitous in food


A few days ago, media reported that the German "food watch" organization recently carried out a spot check on milk powder, and found that eight kinds of milk powder contain aromatic mineral oil, with the content of 0.5mg-3mg / kg, and stressed that the content will not cause health problems. But many mothers are still worried about what mineral oil is, it really won't harm the baby's health?


"Mineral oil is a kind of fat soluble substance. It can be used as processing aid, ink and food. Based on the current scientific data, the potential mineral oil in food is very low for health risk, and no country has formulated its limit standard in food. So don't worry too much. " Ruan Guangfeng, director of science and Technology Department of food and nutrition information exchange center, said.


According to Ruan Guangfeng, mineral oil can be divided into saturated alkane mineral oil and aromatic mineral oil. According to the viscosity, it can be divided into three types: low viscosity, medium viscosity and high viscosity. The general rule is that the more carbon atoms, the larger molecular weight, the greater viscosity and the less toxicity.


Mineral oil not only has industrial uses, such as gasoline, diesel, etc., but also has applications in food, such as paraffin. In addition, many cosmetics in our life have mineral oil, such as all kinds of moisturizing oil, makeup remover oil, skin care products, etc. in fact, they all have mineral oil, which is also widely used in medicine.


Ruan Guangfeng said that in the food industry, mineral oil, on the one hand, is used as a food additive, and also widely in packaging materials. Internationally, the European Union allows mineral oil to be used in cocoa, chocolate products and other candy products, including breath fresh candy and chewing gum; the United States also allows mineral oil to be used in candy, baked food, rice and other foods; China allows mineral oil to be used as processing aid, often as defoamer, mold release agent, anti sticking agent, lubricant and other fermented food, candy Processing of chips and bean products.


"Milk powder contains mineral oil, and printing ink is most likely to enter into food raw materials and food through packaging materials." Ruan Guangfeng said that because the mineral oil content in food is very small for the health risk, so countries have not set their limit standards in food.


According to the expert evaluation report of the European food safety agency, the actual intake of mineral oil is in the range of 0.03-0.3 mg / kg body weight, and the intake of children is higher. For exclusively breastfed infants, the intake is in the range of 0.3-0.5 mg / kg body weight. Generally speaking, about 15% - 35% of these mineral oils are "aromatic mineral oils". According to this data, the daily intake of aromatic mineral oil by European infants is in the range of 0.05-0.18 mg / kg body weight.


"The milk powder with the highest content of aromatic mineral oil in the test is 3 mg / kg. According to this calculation, it can be concluded that the mineral oil consumed by milk powder is not more than that consumed by pure breast milk infants. Therefore, it can be considered that this mineral oil will not harm the baby's health. " Ruan Guangfeng stressed.


Source: editor of science and Technology Daily