Preserved jelly harms children's health

"June 1st" is a festival for children, so when parents choose gifts, they will of course choose things that their children usually like to eat or can use. The candy counters in many large shopping malls are bustling with business.

Some customers directly purchase large gift packages filled with jelly to give to the children of their relatives and friends. A customer who just bought a "gift pack" said that this is what his children like to eat the most, and there may not be enough for them to share in such a big pack.

In this random inspection, the main problem with jelly was the excessive use and out-of-range use of sweeteners and preservatives in food additives, which is also the main reason why jelly products have failed random inspections in recent years. The national standards have strict regulations on the use of food additives in jelly: the preservative benzoic acid and the sweetener saccharin sodium shall not be used in fruit jelly; the maximum usage of the sweetener cyclamate is 0.65g/kg.

The two unqualified products sampled this time both used food additives in excess and beyond the scope. The main reason for substandard product quality is that some companies use sweeteners instead of sugar and preservatives to prevent products from deteriorating during the shelf life in order to reduce costs. Since these additives are artificial chemical synthetics, and the largest consumer group of jelly is children, excessive consumption of jelly with excessive additives will harm the health of children.

Low-price competition is also the main reason for poor product quality. In order to make profits, some small businesses do not hesitate to cut corners and pass off inferior products as good ones. Since white sugar in jelly is expensive, artificial sweeteners are used instead, the juice content in the jelly is reduced, and artificial pigments and flavors are used to impersonate juice, resulting in poor product quality.

For this reason, experts suggest that jelly is made from seaweed gel and other ingredients and contains more dietary fiber. Dietary fiber is one of the nutrients that is helpful to human health. However, since current jelly products contain some artificial chemical synthetic substances to a greater or lesser extent, it is not suitable for children to consume too much of them. In addition, young children should be careful when eating jelly to prevent it from getting stuck in the throat and causing suffocation. At the same time, consumers should choose products with well-known brands, which are of better quality and whose preservatives and sweeteners meet national standards.