Although condiments are indispensable for modern people to make delicious food, it is an indisputable fact that the condiment market is mixed. Recently, the Chinese condiment association publicly solicited relevant condiment food safety national standard system revision opinions. And this public solicitation is based on the requirements of the Ministry of Health's "2010 National Food Safety Standards Clean-up and Improvement Work" (Health Office Supervision Letter [2010] 607)), which classifies soy sauce, vinegar, salt and other condiments. Clean up and integrate into national food safety standards. Below, we will invite nutrition experts to teach you how to correctly choose some commonly used condiments according to food labels.

■ Choose soy sauce

Amino acid is a hard index

"Special fresh soy sauce", "brewing soy sauce", "gold old soy sauce", "gold standard raw soy sauce", "seafood soy sauce" ...... Reporters in Beijing Kelong and other large supermarkets to see, the market of soy sauce in a variety of ways, in the end how to choose?

Wang Yumei, a nutritionist in charge of the Nutrition Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Tsinghua University, pointed out that according to national standards, regardless of the name, "amino acid nitrogen" is a hard indicator that reflects the quality of soy sauce products. This is also a content that any manufacturer's soy sauce must mark.

According to experts, the so-called "amino acid nitrogen" refers to nitrogen in the form of amino acids. There are many sources of nitrogen in food, and the higher the nitrogen in the form of amino acids, the higher the amino acid content of the food. Amino acids are the main source of delicious food. Therefore, the higher the content of "amino acid nitrogen" in soy sauce, the more amino acids, not only high nutrition, but also strong umami.

Therefore, "amino acid nitrogen" is an important indicator of soy sauce product classification. Generally speaking, the amino acid nitrogen content of super, primary, secondary and tertiary soy sauce is ≥ 0.8, ≥ 0.7, ≥ 0.55 and ≥ 0.4g/100 ml respectively.

Generally speaking, there are two types of soy sauce: brewing soy sauce and preparing soy sauce. The former is a product produced by traditional processing technology, and the latter is added with ingredients of preparations. Brewed soy sauce with amino acid nitrogen content above 0.8g/l00 ml is super grade, and 0.4g/100 ml is qualified product.
As for the difference between "raw smoke" and "old smoke", it is not the special difference in the content of "amino acid nitrogen", but the difference in production process, not the difference in quality and umami.

Experts remind that if the use of amino acid nitrogen content is particularly high soy sauce, there is no need to add MSG and chicken essence. In addition, the purchase of soy sauce also need to look at the use, distinguish between raw food and cooked soy sauce, because the method of eating is different, different hygiene indicators, the former is used for cold dishes, hygiene requirements are strict, can be directly imported without heating. The latter is used for cooking, not raw food, need to be heated after eating, not for cold dishes.

Although condiments are indispensable for modern people to make delicious food, it is an indisputable fact that the condiment market is mixed. Recently, the Chinese condiment association publicly solicited relevant condiment food safety national standard system revision opinions. And this public solicitation is based on the requirements of the Ministry of Health's "2010 National Food Safety Standards Clean-up and Improvement Work" (Health Office Supervision Letter [2010] 607)), which classifies soy sauce, vinegar, salt and other condiments. Clean up and integrate into national food safety standards. Below, we will invite nutrition experts to teach you how to correctly choose some commonly used condiments according to food labels.

■ Choose table salt

What is missing and what is the key

As the most common salt in the kitchen, it has also become a wide variety from ordinary iodized salt: low sodium salt, seaweed iodized salt, zinc iodized salt and other salt varieties make supermarket salt shelves become dazzling.