Study said substance in biscuit or cancer

Recently, the Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety (hereinafter referred to as “the Center”) announced to the media a study that showed that people’s daily food contains suspected carcinogens “chloropropanediol fatty acid esters,” including biscuits, oils and fats, and snacks. The content of Chinese-style cakes is the top four among the 14 foods tested in the study. Although the center has also calculated that the daily intake of 3-MCPD fatty acid esters will not affect health, it is still recommended that the public maintain a balanced diet and avoid excessive consumption of foods containing such substances.

Cookies nutrient composition table.

What is the substance of "chloropropanediol fatty acid ester"? Why do these kinds of substances appear in everyday foods? How do we avoid such foods in our daily diet? The love-buy reporter integrated the results of the center and consulted Dr. Yun of food engineering with no intentions to reveal secrets for everyone.

What is "chloropropanediol fatty acid ester"?

According to the data from the Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety, there is currently no international consensus on the scientific data on “chloropropanediol fatty acid esters (hereinafter referred to as “fatty acid esters”). However, this substance may release another toxic 3-MCPD during digestion in the human gastrointestinal tract. Although there is no data currently showing that 3-MCPD causes cancer, there is sufficient evidence that the substance causes laboratory animals to develop tumors. Therefore, the International Agency for Research on Cancer lists 3-MCPD as a Group 2B substance that may or may not cause The substance of cancer. In addition, 3-MCPD also affects the reproductive system of the rat kidney, central nervous system and male rats.

In 2010, the Codex Committee on Contaminants in Foods listed “fatty acid esters” as a priority project of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations/World Health Organization Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (hereinafter referred to as the “Expert Committee”) to assess its toxicity. The Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety, as the designated WHO Collaborating Center for Risk Analysis of Chemicals in Food, also conducted research on “fatty acid esters” from 2011 to 2012 to provide WHO with “fatty acid esters” in local foods. An overview of the content and assessment of its potential health risks to local consumers.

Healthy dietary habits do not need to change the above-mentioned studies for the time being. A total of 300 samples of 14 kinds of foods on the market were sampled. The results showed that “fatty acid esters” in the four categories of biscuits, edible oils and fats, snacks, and Chinese cakes The average content, followed by 440, 390, 270 and 270 micrograms per kilogram, ranks the top four, far higher than the remaining ten types of food.

Among them, the content of grape seed oil in edible oils and fats is the highest among all types of foods for sorghum, with an average value of 1200 micrograms, of which one sample is as high as 2,500 micrograms. The center also used the data on the amount of food consumed by the Hong Kong citizens' food consumption survey in 2005-2007 to assess the intake of fatty acid esters by local residents. The results showed that the average intake of adults from the dietary intake of "fatty acid esters" was 0.2 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day, and the high intake was 0.53 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day.

The Expert Committee set the tentative maximum daily tolerable intake of 3-MCPD to 2 micrograms per kilogram of body weight. Assuming that "fatty acid esters" are completely hydrolyzed in the gastrointestinal tract of adults and toxic 3-MCPD is released, intakes of 3-MCPD in adults with high intakes and high intakes are equivalent to tentative maximum daily doses, respectively. Tolerable intakes of 10% and 26% are far below the relevant tolerable intake. Zhang Zhiliang, president of the Hong Kong Nutrition Society, also stated that 3-MCPD is a “chronic toxin” and is not acute. There is a risk of carcinogenicity if the daily intake exceeds the upper limit for months or even years.

According to the findings of the study, according to the findings of the study, there is currently no sufficient justification for the amount of "fatty acid ester" intake in foods. It is necessary to change the existing basic healthy eating habits of the public, but the public should maintain a balanced and diversified diet. , including eating a variety of fruits and vegetables. Since refined cooking oil is one of the major sources of fatty acid esters, the Center recommends that consumers reduce their intake of food.

Learn to Eat Low-Fat Foods with Nutrition Labels Zhang Zhiliang, president of the Hong Kong Nutrition Society, also stated that the International Agency for Research on Cancer lists 3-MCPD as Group 2B substances, that is, it does not rule out cancer risks to the human body, but the public does not need to panic. Usually eat low-fat foods.

Why daily foods such as snacks, cookies, etc. produce chloropropanediol fatty acid esters? Food Engineering Dr. Yun unintentionally explained that this substance is a by-product of the high-temperature treatment of oil, which is produced by high-temperature treatment in the food manufacturing process, and the natural content of high-fat food is high.

What is a low-fat food? Cloud has no intention of suggesting that we seriously look at the nutrition label on food, which is the "nutrition component list" that is stipulated on the food packaging, and we must pay special attention to the oil content. Cloud unwittingly introduced that generally speaking, “the ratio of one serving of food to one day's reference intake” exceeds “the ratio of the amount of calorie provided by the food to one day's reference intake”, and fat is even higher.

On January 1, 2013, China officially implemented the first National Standard for Nutrition Labelling of Prepackaged Foods, the first national standard for nutrition labelling of foodstuffs, in which mandatory foodstuffs must mark the values ​​of energy and protein, fat, carbohydrate, and sodium, and four kinds of core nutrients. Reference value (NRV value), and beginning this year, food producers have also implemented this rule. The proportions that Cloud unintentionally mention are basically not calculated by us and can be seen on nutrition labels very intuitively.