Is eating spices often harmful to human body?

Flavor substances added to improve food flavor are called edible spices, or edible spices for short. In addition to the spices directly used in food, there are some other spices, such as toothpaste spices, tobacco spices, oral cleaners, oral medicine spices and so on. It can also be regarded as a generalized edible spice.

Edible spices can be divided into two types: allowed and temporarily allowed, and can be divided into natural and artificial spices according to different sources. At present, there are 534 kinds of edible spices allowed to be used in China, including 37 kinds of natural spices/KLOC-0 and 397 kinds of synthetic spices. There are 157 kinds of spices temporarily allowed.

Natural spices are made from natural plants by hot pressing, cold pressing, distillation and organic solvent leaching. Ethanol can also be used to make tinctures or extracts. Commonly used natural spices include star anise, fennel, pepper, ginger, pepper, mint, clove, jasmine, osmanthus, rose, nutmeg and cinnamon.

Edible spices are generally not harmful to the body because of their small dosage. However, in recent years, it has been found that some natural spices contain safrole, which is a liquid with strong aromatic smell. Animal experiments have found that it can cause liver diseases, so the potential harm of natural spices to human body can not be ignored. Most artificial flavors come from petrochemical products, coal tar and other raw materials, including esters, acids, alcohols, phenols, ketones, ethers, lipids and so on. Due to different raw materials and formulas, the smell of artificial flavors is also different. There are many kinds of flavor monomers, some are toxic and some are non-toxic. To ensure the safe use of artificial edible essence, we must start with the essence monomer. According to national standards, flavor monomers are divided into ① allowed flavor monomers, ② temporarily allowed flavor monomers and ③ prohibited flavor monomers.