Can I eat more caramel?

Caramel, also known as caramel color, commonly known as sauce color, is a thick liquid or powder boiled with caramel and sucrose. It is dark brown and bitter, and is mainly used for coloring soy sauce, candy, vinegar and beer.

in the 196s, it was once suspected to be harmful to human body because of the problem of its cyclization compound, tetra-methylimidazole, which was banned by governments all over the world. After years of hard research by scientists, it has been proved that it is harmless. < P > The caramel industry in China is very backward. Most of the output is produced by workshop-style manual methods. Few manufacturers can produce it by scientific methods, and only a single salt-tolerant caramel used in soy sauce can be produced, with poor quality and poor hygiene indicators.

in the past, China only produced one caramel color, that is, the salt-tolerant caramel used in brewing industry, which was equivalent to the international class III caramel, and the national standard GB8817-88. In recent years, only a few manufacturers have been able to produce acid-resistant caramel used in cola beverages. The happy cola produced by Shanghai soda factory is not for sale, but its acid resistance is not high enough. Later, Zhejiang Yongjia Glucose Factory, Henan Kaifeng Chinese Medicine Factory, Zhejiang Ruian Food Additive Factory, Shanghai Normal University Chemical Plant, Shanghai University of Science and Technology Chemical Plant, etc. also successively developed acid-resistant caramel with high acid resistance, all of which are only single color rate. Chongqing Yulong Food & Beverage Co., Ltd. introduced foreign technical equipment in 1989, and developed a double acid-resistant caramel color, the quality of which is close to that of advanced foreign products. So far, China's caramel industry has taken a step forward. Regrettably, however, the situation of caramel, which is widely used in soy sauce, wine and vinegar, has not changed. The caramel produced by self-employed individuals with sucrose honey has a low color rate, easy precipitation, ugly color tone, serious burnt smell and poor sanitary conditions. The production of caramel is nothing new, but a BrowmingReaction. Browning reaction is a common phenomenon in our daily life, food processing and cooking, but up to now, the mechanism of caramel reaction can not be accurately explained by science and technology, and the structural composition of caramel has not been recognized. Brache, a British chemist who has been engaged in caramel research in the laboratory almost all his life, lamented: "Caramel is not only complicated, but also unpredictable. Only by controlling raw materials, preparation technology, time and temperature to the greatest extent can the repeatability of high-quality products be guaranteed ...".

as mentioned above, although modern science and technology have not fully understood the mechanism of caramel reaction, they have clearly understood the early mechanism and reaction products of non-enzymatic browning reaction. Generally speaking, there are two types of caramel reaction: one is Medella reaction accompanied by amine, that is, SehiffsBase is generated from glucose +NH3-R, and N- substituted glucosamine is generated by further heating. The other is pure caramel reaction (coking reaction by simply heating glucose), that is, at a fairly high temperature (about 2℃). Both kinds of reactions can produce aldehydes and dicarbonyl compounds, but Maillard reaction permeates ammonia-containing components. This reaction mechanism can be roughly summarized into three steps: Step 1: Start the reaction. A, sugar-ammonia combination; B, Amadori molecular rearrangement reaction. Step 2: The degradation reaction produces colorless substances with strong ultraviolet absorption and releases carbon dioxide. C, sugar dehydration. D, ring cracking. Step 3: condensation reaction to form high molecular weight strong dyeing components. E, aldol condensation; F, aldehyde-ammonia polymerization and the formation of heterocyclic compounds containing ammonia.

so what do you think?