The Health Planning Commission has formulated new standards for two food additives, monascus yellow pigment and selenium-enriched seed bud powder, and publicly solicited opinions from the public.

monascus yellow pigment

In this revision, the monascus yellow pigment will be expanded to use "04.04.01 non-fermented soy products (excluding tofu, yuba, cooked beans).

The monascus red rice yellow pigment is prepared from red yeast rice as a raw material, and is separated by an alkali solution to obtainmonascus  red (or directly used as red raw material), which is obtained by sulfonating and drying the sulfide. Monascus yellow pigment is a polyketone pigment with good coloring properties and antibacterial properties, as well as good solubility, thermal stability, wide pH value and high safety.

The addition of monascus yellow pigment in the non-fermented soy products has the necessity of the process. First, it can improve the sensory quality of the food, and maintain the consistency and stability of the senses of the food. Second, the monascus yellow pigment is used for coloring in food, and the product is uniform. Natural, stable, and can meet the stability requirements of food shelf life.

According to the national GB2760-2014 04.04.01 standard, yellow pigment in non-fermented soy products is currently only allowed to use citrus yellow and natural carotene. But both have their own shortcomings: citrus yellow is oil-soluble and insoluble in water, which causes a lot of inconvenience to the processing and use, and can not be combined with food to achieve the purpose of coloring; natural carotene has poor photothermal stability, see light Easy to break down, can not meet the requirements of the shelf life. The monascus yellow pigment is obtained by microbial fermentation and is a water-soluble pigment with strong photothermal stability and convenient operation. It is a safe pigment that is superior to both.

Selenium-enriched bud powder

This revision identified the selenium-enriched seed bud powder as the main standard for new food resources.

The selenium-enriched seed bud powder is processed by using pure sorghum granules, adding a certain amount of sodium selenite, by germination, drying and the like. It can be eaten directly or as a nutritional supplement to process foods such as selenium-rich taro, bread, biscuits, instant noodles and many other health foods. Applicable to sub-healthy people in the selenium-depleted areas, smoking, alcoholics, the elderly and other people who need to supplement selenium.

Selenium-enriched seed bud powder is a kind of nutrient fortifier for the purpose of supplementing trace element selenium. The earliest selenium fortifier used in China is sodium selenite. Because sodium selenite is more toxic to human body and difficult to absorb, people Started research and development of selenium-enriched yeast, and later appeared a variety of products such as selenium-enriched edible fungi, selenium-enriched rice, various selenium-enriched fruits, selenium-enriched tea, and selenium-enriched eggs.

The biggest advantage of selenium-enriched seed bud powder is that the selenium content is accurate, stable and controllable. The mechanism of action is to let the plant absorb sodium selenite and assimilate the inorganic selenium into organic selenium such as selenium polysaccharide and selenoamino acid which are less toxic and easily absorbed by the human body, which is safer and better absorbed.