Sodium cyclamate, as an international food additive, will not be harmful to health as long as the intake is not over the standard. Sodium cyclamate will not make the fruit sweeter, on the contrary, it may make the shelf life of the fruit shorter.
Recently, a WeChat WeChat official account published an article "All Taken, Soon Deleted", which introduced the situation that fruit farmers used cyclamate to sweeten oranges. Through careful compilation and editing by the producers, the article has been widely spread on the Internet, causing some consumers’ worries.
The saying that citrus is sweetened with cyclamate is an old topic that has been repeatedly hyped. Besides citrus, the hyped fruit types involve winter dates, oranges, watermelons, cantaloupes, peaches, apples, etc. It is rumored that there are many ways to add it, such as soaking, injecting and spraying. Influenced by rumors, some consumers have doubts about the edible safety of fruits, and think that the intake of fruits with sodium cyclamate is not good for their health.
What exactly is sodium cyclamate?
Sodium cyclamate, whose scientific name is "sodium cyclamate", is a non-nutritive sweetener, and its sweetness is 30-mdash of sucrose; 40 times, and the price is only about 1/3 of sucrose, and it doesn’t taste bitter when used in a little amount like saccharin, so it can be used as an international food additive in foods such as drinks, fruit juice, ice cream, cakes and preserves.
Sodium cyclamate as a food sweetener, according to the evaluation results of the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives of FAO/WHO, the daily allowable intake does not exceed 11 mg/kg body weight. Xu Weisheng, an associate researcher at the Institute of Nutrition and Health of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that in China, there are strict regulations on the approval of food additives and the limitation of the scope of use. As long as the goods purchased by consumers are regular and the sodium cyclamate intake does not exceed the standard, it will not affect health.
Is it feasible to sweeten fruits with sodium cyclamate?
Xu Weisheng believes that sodium cyclamate is water-soluble and insoluble in oil. Even if sodium cyclamate is sprayed on the surface of fruit during its growth, sodium cyclamate cannot enter the fruit. If the fruit is sweetened by injecting sodium cyclamate, it needs to be injected in all directions, which will cause the destruction of plant cell walls and the fruit will rot and deteriorate in a short time. It is harmful to businesses, so it is impossible to add sodium cyclamate to sweeten fruits.
A large number of data prove that enough vegetables and fruits are beneficial to health, including weight control, antioxidant supplementation, blood lipid and blood pressure control, reducing the risk of malignant tumors, promoting and protecting intelligence, and preventing cognitive decline. Consumers should not believe in rumors, do not spread rumors, believe in scientific knowledge, and eat enough fruits.