Infant noodles exceed the standard aluminum, and the nitrates burst into the table?

On December 15th, some media published an article titled "Testing 15 Infant Noodles: Small Skin Aluminum Exceeds Standards and Contains Multiple Heavy Metals; 3 Nitrates "Broken Table" including Yiwei", claiming to be tested by an authoritative third party The agency sent for inspection of 15 mainstream infant noodles on the market for testing.

The article stated that aluminum was detected in 13 types of noodles for infants and young children, with the content ranging from 0.

In addition, the article emphasizes that studies have shown that the accumulation of aluminum in the brain tissue can inhibit the activity of a variety of enzymes, resulting in decreased thinking ability and memory loss, which will seriously affect children's intellectual development and bone growth

But Zhong Kai, director of Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center, questioned the article

Zhong Kai said that first of all, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is not a risk management agency and does not formulate specific limit standards, but only gives scientific opinions and suggestions for risk assessment

Second, the EU, like other countries in the world (including China), does not manage aluminum as a pollutant, but EU member states can formulate their own control policies according to their needs, but mainly for food additives such as alum and pigment aluminum lakes

In addition, Zhong Kai said that aluminum is the metal element with the highest content in the earth's crust, and the background values ​​of different regions and different species are different

As for the aluminum accumulation in the brain tissue mentioned in the original report, it can inhibit the activity of a variety of enzymes, resulting in decreased thinking ability and memory loss, which will seriously affect children's intellectual development and bone growth.

In addition, the article also mentioned that nitrates were detected in 11 types of noodles for infants and young children, and 3 of them contained high nitrates (the test results are shown in the figure below)

It also refers to the compounds produced by microbial transformation during the metabolism of nitrate in the body, namely nitrite and nitrosamines

And Zhong Kai also interpreted this: nitrate is also naturally contained in fruits and vegetables, and the content varies with varieties and planting conditions.

In addition, according to the 2008 EU Food Safety Agency "Analysis of the Pros and Cons of Nitrate Intake by Vegetables", the following conclusions are drawn:

Overall, the estimated exposures to nitrate from vegetables are unlikely to result in appreciable health risks, therefore the recognised beneficial effects of consumption of vegetables prevail.

In other words, instead of worrying about the health risks of nitrates in vegetables, it is better to worry about the health risks of not eating vegetables

In addition, Zhong Kai emphasized that nitrate, nitrite, and nitrosamine should not be forcibly linked, so as to draw the conclusion that nitrate and nitrite can cause cancer