How to quickly distinguish traditional and industrial fish sauce?
Dr. Tran Thi Dung – seafood processing and preservation technology expert, former director of Fisheries Planning and Consulting Center (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) shared with NNVN about the communication incident “arsenic-contaminated fish sauce” (organic) and recommend how to quickly distinguish industrial fish sauce, traditional fish sauce…
1. Why call organic arsenic and inorganic arsenic? Is only inorganic arsenic called arsenic?
Organic arsenic is a compound in which an arsenic atom is attached to an organic compound – a compound in the presence of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms, which is non-toxic. Inorganic arsenic is arsenic combined with other metal/metallic elements. Only inorganic arsenic is called arsenic.
2. Since when did the world in general and our country in particular have industrial fish sauce? What is industrial fish sauce actually? Is it harmful if used long term?
There is industrial fish sauce as we still say. On a global scale, Thailand has been making industrial fish sauce for a long time, I don’t know since when, but in the 90s, I saw that they had this type of product. Masan Group (Vietnam) learns the Thai way. Previously, in the 1980s, there were households making fish sauce. Truong Dinh Street – Hanoi has many mixologists of this type. They do not have an industrial chain but only dilute fish sauce, add water, monosodium glutamate, and acid. But since food chemical additives have been developed and imported into Vietnam, Masan has a strong potential, investing in industrial chains to make fish sauce from cheap fish sauce, much lower in protein than fish sauce. not juice as people say).
Industrial fish sauce is added with a lot of additives and chemicals of the following groups: flavor enhancers, colorants, flavorings, preservatives, acids, and thickeners to create a low protein sauce that still satisfy the tastes of consumers. This fish sauce has very low fish protein. When adding MSG or super-sweeteners with amine functional group (-NH2) in it, it will increase total protein.
Whether the use of industrial fish sauce is toxic or not will not be known in the long run because according to the regulations of the Codex and the Ministry of Health, they are using chemical additives that are allowed to be used in food. But whether that chemical additive is safe when added to fish sauce, there is no risk analysis to confirm this. Currently, with fish sauce, people are using international regulations for food standards in general.
3. Can consumers know what is industrial fish sauce and traditional fish sauce on the packaging? Distinguish by what distinguishing features? Is industrial fish sauce high in protein?
Looking at the packaging, it is possible to distinguish traditional fish sauce and industrial fish sauce. When looking at the label of a fish sauce bottle and seeing a series of these substances (preservatives, colorings, flavorings and thickeners), it is definitely industrial fish sauce. Traditional fish sauce does not need to add preservatives, colors, flavorings and thickeners (only salt and fish). If it is proposed to announce the salt content of fish sauce, it will be found that industrial fish sauce has a low salt content of less than 240 g/l, while real fish sauce with the same protein content must have a salt content of 280 g/l or more. just preserved. So traditional fish sauce is always salty.
In the additives used to prepare industrial fish sauce, HT155 (also known as E155 or Brown HT) is a color used in food production. Although no studies have found that E155 causes cancer, some information suggests that it may cause allergies in humans. Therefore, at present, many European countries such as Britain, France, Belgium … and the US have issued a ban on the use of this substance. This substance is not on the list of additives approved by the Ministry of Health. Industrial fish sauce does not have a high protein grade because the industry has diluted traditional low protein fish sauce to get a high profit.
Organic arsenic compounds are not toxic to the body. There are two types of organic compounds of arsenic in natural foods according to its presence in plants and animals. With animals, two species of seaweed and fish have high concentrations of arsenic… They are completely non-toxic but only supplement arsenic for the body’s needs and excess is quickly excreted through the urinary tract and digestive tract.
Source: Thanh Quoc
