A reporter sent a letter saying that someone recently broke the news about the production of fake egg. The story about fake egg has been around for a long time. Some people say it's personal experience, others say it's fake news. The reporter is concerned about: can you make fake eggs with other raw materials? How harmful is fake egg to health? What people are most concerned about is how to distinguish the true and false eggs.
From the appearance, an egg is just a shell wrapped in a thick translucent glue, with a yellow thing in the middle, and the boundaries are obvious, that's all. As long as you can do this, you can fool people. This layer of glue is not difficult to realize in food. Let another part of yellow things be in the middle and not mix with it, so many things can be done. As for the eggshell, it is nothing more than some inorganic salt precipitation. So, technically, it is possible to make something that looks like an egg. In fact, the popular "molecular gastronomy" often uses other ingredients to simulate the appearance of conventional food, which brings surprises to people.
What journalists are most concerned about is how harmful this fake egg is to health. As far as fake egg raw materials are concerned, sodium alginate and gelatin are natural extracts, which are widely used in food industry. Calcium carbonate is the effective component of many calcium tablets, and the main component in tofu brine is calcium chloride, which has no adverse effect on health at the usual dosage; If it is a qualified food pigment, there is no safety problem. The only problem is alum, and its safety problem comes from the aluminum in it. Aluminum is not a substance needed by human body. A large amount of aluminum may lead to poisoning, and the consequences are usually delayed development and nerve damage. Alum is often used in traditional Chinese medicine and some traditional foods (such as fried dough sticks) in China.
From this point of view, if only from the perspective of raw materials, fake egg can indeed achieve no obvious toxicity. But the problem is that this analysis assumes that all qualified food ingredients are used. In fact, these things have corresponding industrial-grade products, but the price is much lower than that of food-grade raw materials. For criminals who make fakes, we can't expect them to be so good that they don't use cheap industrial raw materials for the health of the deceived.
However, even if fully qualified raw materials are used and the products are safe, such fake egg is still illegal. One of the basic requirements of food production is to convey product information truthfully. Consumers buy real eggs, so producers must provide real eggs. Even if fake egg is more delicious and nutritious than real eggs, you can't really sell eggs. What is produced in this way is an "egg analogue", which can be sold as a new food after approval by the competent department, and can also promote the advantages of new products, even saying that it is better than eggs. In fact, there are many "egg substitutes" and many related patented technologies abroad. These products also use edible gums such as sodium alginate or gelatin to make the texture and processability of eggs, and use plant protein to simulate the nutritional value of egg white. Such products can be used in foods such as cakes. Its selling point is to avoid high cholesterol and allergens in eggs, which is very attractive to some consumers. Moreover, for strict vegetarians who don't eat eggs or drink milk, such an "egg substitute" also gives them a chance to eat cakes. Therefore, such products are in great demand in European and American markets. They are legal commodities and "egg substitutes", not "fake egg". Because they meet the following requirements: raw materials and production technology meet the requirements of food production; Clearly tell consumers the product ingredients; The claimed product functions are true and legal-all these have been reviewed and recognized by the competent authorities. The core place here is that it replaces some nutrition and processing functions of eggs through reasonable and legal food technology. There is no eggshell or yolk, and it doesn't even look like an egg at all. In fake eggs, the "technical core" is only for the appearance of "image" and will never tell customers what it is.
Although the reporter is most concerned about how to identify fake egg, I don't think the responsibility of identifying the true and false eggs should be transferred to consumers. If ordinary consumers can distinguish fake eggs only by naked eyes or simple "secrets", they can only say that such fake eggs are not realistic enough. Fakers know science, hooligans can't stop them, and consumers are not rivals. The key to solve the problem is the crackdown on producers and sellers by competent departments and law enforcement departments. The responsibility of the food quality supervision department is to monitor the circulating food. No matter how clever the fraud is, it is impossible to avoid it in front of professional testing. For things like fake egg, the key is not necessarily whether the product itself is harmful, but that this illegal mode of production must be regarded as taking precautions and causing serious consequences. If the risk cost brought by punishment to counterfeiters is high enough, most criminals will be prevented from breaking the law. For consumers, the only responsibility left is to buy products from legal channels. If consumers are greedy for small profits and buy eggs from unlicensed vendors, then buying fake egg is the consequence they should bear, which is similar to "willing to gamble and lose". If you suspect that the seller approved by the competent department is selling fake egg, you only need to report it or apply for professional testing. If it is true, the seller should be awarded huge compensation and severely punished-it is the responsibility of the dealer to ensure reliable supply.