Is Hengshun soy sauce good?

Industrial production makes industrial salt soy sauce and chemical soy sauce occupy the people's table, and traditional brewing soy sauce is gradually drifting away.

Industrial production makes industrial salt soy sauce and chemical soy sauce occupy the people's table, and traditional brewing soy sauce is gradually drifting away.

The formation and influence of large-scale industrialization of soy sauce led to the gradual disappearance of traditional soy sauce enterprises. Comparatively speaking, the traditional soy sauce workshop adopts the original brewing technology, which is not only costly and time-consuming, but even the traditional soy sauce workshop is rare now. With the chemical blending of soy sauce and low-cost harmful substitute raw materials, China soy sauce is in crisis, and the traditional soy sauce workshop has become history.

In the face of frequent soy sauce cases, the reporter of China Business News (Weibo) interviewed China Condiment Association by telephone. The other party who answered the phone made it clear that the senior leaders of the association were meeting recently to discuss the problem soy sauce, and all topics related to the problem soy sauce refused to be interviewed by the media.

From chemical soy sauce to industrial salt addition, why did China soy sauce come to this point today?

Traditional soy sauce shops are becoming antiques.

It is difficult to expand the brewing scale of workshop-style soy sauce. Although their workshop is relatively large in traditional brewing, compared with industrialized soy sauce manufacturers, it can only be regarded as nine Niu Yi hairs.

Under the impact of industrial production, there are only a handful of traditional folk soy sauce shops because of their long production time and high cost. The reporter found a Rugao Chinatown food factory in Rugao County, Nantong, Jiangsu Province, which adhered to the traditional practice.

Prepare in spring, make sauce in summer, turn over in autumn and make sauce in winter. Hua Fu Food Factory has always used the ancient brewing technology to brew soy sauce. Director Hua told reporters that after the food factory was transformed from a state-owned enterprise, she and a dozen laid-off workers propped up the food factory, mainly brewing soy sauce by traditional methods.

Hua told reporters that the brewing of soy sauce began with the selection of soybeans with full grains. Then, soak the soybeans in water at room temperature for about 6 hours in summer and double the time in winter. Then drain the beans and steam them in a pot for about two hours. After the soybeans are cooled, mix in the flour at a ratio of 100 kg of soybeans and 6 kg of flour. Then make koji, pour soybeans into bamboo plaques, press them into cakes, cover them with cotton, and put them in the koji room.

The koji-making temperature must be controlled at about 40℃, which is beneficial to the growth of Aspergillus oryzae. Therefore, it is necessary to keep the winding room ventilated in summer and burn charcoal to keep warm in winter. When the koji is covered with green mold, it should be stirred into koji with salt. Then move to the sun for 10 days, and add water to expose to the sun.

"It usually takes more than half a year of fermentation to produce enough amino acids." Hua said to me. When the sauce mash is cooked, put it in a cloth bag and squeeze out the soy sauce. Light soy sauce, reddish brown. Light soy sauce is refined by adding good caramel, which becomes deep soy sauce.

"In addition, preservatives must be used to preserve soy sauce. Many manufacturers use low-priced sodium benzoate, and our factory uses potassium sorbate, which is 8~ 10 times higher than sodium benzoate. Minimize the harm of preservatives to the human body. " Hua added.

Hua told reporters that according to their production technology, 1 kg soybean can produce up to two kilograms of soy sauce. Coupled with all kinds of raw materials, labor, venues and other costs, their local sales price in Rugao is about 6 yuan per catty, which is more than half as expensive as soy sauce of the same grade on the market. "Even so, the soy sauce we produce is still in short supply in Rugao." Hua said to me. Because its products are famous in Rugao, Nantong Quality Inspection Bureau has also passed QS certification.

However, Hua also admitted that it is difficult to expand the scale of workshop-style soy sauce brewing. Although their workshop is relatively large in traditional brewing, compared with industrialized soy sauce manufacturers, it can only be regarded as nine Niu Yi hairs.

The soy sauce workshops in China are few survivors, but the soy sauce workshops in other places are not so lucky, and many soy sauce workshops are trapped in certification.

QS certification forced the workshop to disappear.

The implementation of QS certification makes the soy sauce industry face a reshuffle. Many small factories and workshops failed to meet the certification conditions and were forced to close down. Even if it reaches the certification standard, it will be eliminated because the output is too small and the cost rises, and large enterprises will further occupy the market.

The traditional meticulous brewing method is in a dilemma in the face of industrial production certification that requires hardware standards such as scale and equipment.

On June 5438+1 October1in 2004, China first implemented the food quality and safety market access system in five food industries: rice, edible vegetable oil, wheat flour, soy sauce and vinegar. This means that only the manufacturer has obtained QS certification can the products leave the factory.

The system aims to ensure food quality and safety from the source of production. Take soy sauce as an example. From June 5438 to October 2004, CCTV revealed that animal hair in a factory in Hubei was hydrolyzed into amino acid solution (commonly known as hair water), which was made into "chemical soy sauce" by soy sauce manufacturers for sale. Hair actually contains toxic substances such as mercury and arsenic, and carcinogens such as chloropropanol are also produced during the hydrolysis of hydrochloric acid.

QS certification requires on-site inspection of production sites, production equipment and inspection equipment, which also prevents many harmful products from entering the market. However, QS certification also shuts out some small-scale traditional workshops.

Due to unqualified testing equipment, site scale and environmental protection, many traditional workshops failed to pass QS certification. Therefore, some workshops have to reduce the output of soy sauce year by year and sell it in batches around the workshops.

An industry insider told the reporter that because QS certification is formulated according to the standards of modern industrial production, it is difficult for traditional workshops to have enough strength to meet these hardware conditions due to the limitation of production time and output.

In addition, the technology of sunbathing and night dew is the biggest difference between traditional methods and industrial production. The industrialized soy sauce can be bottled in as short as 10 day, while the traditional soy sauce production takes at least one year, and more than two or three years. The relative extension of time means the rising cost of various uncertain factors. A QS certification costs tens of thousands of yuan, which may be the profit of a workshop for one year.

In fact, the implementation of QS certification has made the soy sauce industry face a reshuffle. Many small factories and workshops failed to meet the certification conditions and were forced to close down. Even if it reaches the certification standard, it will be eliminated because the output is too small and the cost rises, and large enterprises will further occupy the market.

A medium-sized traditional workshop can ferment 1000 kg of soybeans at one time and finally produce 10 ton of soy sauce. According to its shortest fermentation period of 4 months, only 30 tons of soy sauce can be produced a year. However, industrial production obviously can't wait for the fermentation speed of traditional workshops. According to the data of China Business Information Network: from 20 1 1 to 65438+February, the national soy sauce output reached 6.625 million tons, up 16.39% year-on-year.

Because the market is full of prepared soy sauce, although the quality of workshop-style soy sauce is very good, it is difficult to compete with low-priced soy sauce because of its high production cost, which makes its profit even worse.

"Suqian, which used to be full of soy sauce workshops, now most soy sauce production enterprises, whether it is soy sauce production enterprises or soy sauce production enterprises, are producing soy sauce, and soy sauce is disappearing from the market." Zhu Xiaochang, general manager of Jiangsu Hongtian Food Co., Ltd. lamented that due to the low cost, more and more manufacturers prepare soy sauce. Even though many brewers have obtained QS certification, they still face bankruptcy or have to increase the proportion of soy sauce preparation. In the end, most enterprises in the whole industry have gradually become.

Brewing soy sauce is actually preparing soy sauce.

You don't need raw materials such as soybeans, and you can even make delicious soy sauce with chemicals such as caramel color, monosodium glutamate, disodium nucleotide, citric acid, stevioside and sodium benzoate.

At present, soy sauce products subject to food production license management in China include brewing soy sauce and preparing soy sauce. Brewed soy sauce refers to a liquid condiment with special color, fragrance and taste made from soybean (cake), wheat and/or bran by microbial fermentation. Preparation of soy sauce refers to the liquid seasoning made of brewed soy sauce as the main body, acid hydrolyzed vegetable protein seasoning liquid and food additives.

Strictly speaking, as long as the acid-hydrolyzed vegetable protein seasoning liquid is used in the production process, it is all for preparing soy sauce. China's "Standard for Brewed Soy Sauce" requires that the label of the goods be marked "Brewed Soy Sauce" or "Prepared Soy Sauce". Moreover, according to national standards, even a bottle of prepared soy sauce can not be less than 50%.

This means that the country requires manufacturers to brew soy sauce as the main body. However, this is not the case. In order to make consumers more confident about the quality of soy sauce, many soy sauces labeled "brewed soy sauce" are actually just prepared soy sauce.

The reporter checked a lot of ingredients that claimed to brew soy sauce in the market, including soybean, wheat flour and other ingredients, as well as acidic substances such as seasoning nucleotides. However, under acidic conditions, these two substances are easily hydrolyzed by acid to form acid-hydrolyzed vegetable protein seasoning liquid, which makes brewing soy sauce become prepared soy sauce in the production process.

The acid-hydrolyzed vegetable protein seasoning liquid is generally a liquid umami seasoning made of soybean and wheat protein. Because soybean contains propanol, the second carcinogen trichloropropanol will be produced during acid hydrolysis. Therefore, the prepared soy sauce was once called "chemical soy sauce" by the media. To this end, the China Condiment Association has also issued a statement saying that the so-called "chemical soy sauce" problem is the difference between brewing soy sauce and preparing soy sauce, and "does not belong to food safety issues".

You don't need raw materials such as soybeans, and you can even make delicious soy sauce with chemicals such as caramel color, monosodium glutamate, disodium nucleotide, citric acid, stevioside and sodium benzoate.

Recently, Huang Wushu, manager of Gezhouba No.5 Company in Yichang, Hubei Province, wrote a blog post about soy sauce blending, showing that the blending process is completely separated from brewing soy sauce.

Huang Wushu's company mainly produces food processing equipment. Huang Wushu told reporters that these "recipes" were found on the label of a bottle of brand soy sauce he once bought. The preparation process completely bypassed the brewing stage of soybean fermentation and became an out-and-out chemical soy sauce. He suggested that consumers should pay more attention to the ingredients and additives marked on soy sauce bottles when buying.

"I will never eat soy sauce again, although soy sauce used to be one of my favorite condiments." Huang Wushu told reporters.