How many people see a roast sausage with a price of 2 yuan on the street. They must buy it every time they see it. It's delicious to bake on the grill. But it's fun to eat. Many people will also worry about whether a 2-yuan roast sausage can be eaten or not? What meat is it made of? Is it harmful to your health? Let's talk about it today.
What kind of meat is the $2 roast sausage on the street made of?
Ham sausage, roast sausage and other fast eating meat products evolved from the original sausage meat products made in the early stage of mankind for the purpose of making the greatest use of food resources.
At first, after dividing the whole cow or pig carcass into edible parts suitable for simple cooking, people chop up all kinds of fragmented meat, fat and other by-products produced together, add salt and pour them into the intestines or stomach of animals to make sausages. Later, in order to prolong the shelf life, people will also adopt methods such as fermentation, air drying, cooking and smoking.
today
Now, whether it's ham sausage fried on the street and rolled in chilli noodles and cumin powder, or all kinds of flavor sausage roasted by special sausage electromechanical in convenience stores, it's basically low-temperature meat products with traditional Chinese flavor made by adding the same amount or more of other edible ingredients to the leftovers of livestock, poultry and aquatic products (sporadic minced meat, meat skin and other fat) and using the "fresh locking" technology of modern food science.
The so-called "fresh locking" technology actually means that starch, water, salt, sugar, water retaining agent, thickener, colorant, preservative and essence are added to the fragmented meat, meat skin and fat block with specific mechanical force and appropriate time, and then filled into the collagen casing for sterilization.
Because the raw materials and ingredients used are cheap and accessible, the process is simple and the production efficiency is very high, it is not surprising that their price is lower than that of equal weight raw meat.
In addition, the 2-yuan-a-piece roast sausage made by this formula and process is thin, compact and shiny, with crystal, full, moist and soft inside. You can smell the meat fragrance before eating and importing, and the taste is full of meat flavor.
Can I eat a roast sausage for 2 yuan?
While many people wonder whether the 2 yuan sausage is genuine, many others fear the harm of additives in sausage ingredients to human body.
In fact, due to the existence of additives, to a large extent, humans have avoided other risks of greater toxic effects on the body.
For example, nitrite, as a colorant in roast sausage, can also kill botulinum toxin that pollutes meat products and prevent the production of deadly botulinum toxin. In addition, the amount of each additive is also added in strict accordance with the standard for the use of food additives (GB2760).
Convenience stores selling roast sausage have a perfect certificate system and purchase goods from formal channels. They eat a few occasionally without being troubled by the harm of roast sausage additives to the body.
However, if you eat two (about 50g / piece) crispy baked intestines at a time, the intake of sodium is equivalent to nearly 50% of an adult's daily intake (2000mg), while the intake of fat is up to 80% of the daily requirement.
From this point of view, from the perspective of nutrition: Although the protein content of roast sausage is not low, because its sodium content and fat content are too high, it does not belong to the food category recommended for food diversification, and should not be included in the recipes for collective meals in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools. Note that regular consumption of roast sausage may increase the risk of obesity and hypertension.
Figure 1. Table of nutritional components of ham sausage and crispy (roasted) sausage
Yang Yuexin, Chinese food composition table, Volume II, 2004
How do you choose to buy your own roast sausage?
Roast sausage has the advantages of delicious, convenient carrying, easy preservation and simple processing. It is suitable for temporary dinner, camping picnic and long-distance driving in work and study places occasionally.
But when choosing roast sausage, you should pay attention to the following points:
Look at the label on the sausage package
Generally, few people ask the clerk who sells electric roast sausage for the package of roast sausage to check the ingredient list and nutrition label of roast sausage, and convenience stores will buy large packages of roast sausage and then sell them scattered. However, understanding the content of ingredient list and nutrition label is not only the legal right to know of consumers, but also the primary condition to decide whether to choose or not.
Determine the time when the sausage is on the electric grill
Under normal circumstances, the seller of roast sausage will inevitably guarantee to bake and sell it now. If the sausage is unpacked and placed on the grill for more than a few hours, there may be a risk that the sausage will be contaminated by harmful microorganisms and other substances in the environment, which will lead to food poisoning.
Pay attention to the sanitation of the electric sausage roaster
If the electric sausage roaster is not cleaned regularly, it may produce carcinogens such as 3,4 benzopyrene and acrylamide and trans fatty acids after repeated heating of oil, which is very likely to pollute the sausage.
Expert of this article: PA Lize, chief physician of nutrition, member of Science Popularization Committee of China Nutrition Society