Vegetarian food and in particular vegetarian meat may contain a variety of food additives - artificial colours and preservatives to name but the most common.
Out of concern for the habitual vegetarians and the type and quantity of such food additives used, the Consumer Council has conducted a test based on four typical vegetable dishes, namely, sweet and sour gluten, curry gluten, vegetarian barbecued pork (vegetarian cha siu), vegetarian duck kidney.
The results showed that, not surprisingly, all 23 samples of the vegetarian food tested were found to contain one to three kinds of colouring matters. And 17 of the samples were detected with one to two preservatives.
Nonetheless, the additives identified do not raise any safety concerns. The colours identified (carmoisine, curcumin, red 2G, sunset yellow FCF and tartrazine) were all permitted for use under the Colouring Matter in Food Regulations. None contained the forbidden colouring agents of Orange II and Rhodamine B.
The toxicity of these permitted colours is low and the amount normally used in food would not cause health problem - with the exception of tartrazine which may cause allergic reactions, including bronchial asthma and urticaria, in people susceptible to such reactions.
The amount of the preservative benzoic acid detected in the 17 samples ranged from 5.7 mg/kg to 39 mg/kg. Three of them had, besides benzoic acid, another preservative sorbic acid ranging in quantity from 5 mg/kg to 13 mg/kg.
The Preservatives in Food Regulations includes a list of specified food that may contain the permitted preservatives of the description and in the proportion specified. Vegetarian food is not a specified food in the list.
As the amount of benzoic acid and sorbic acid found in the test samples was only small, it is believed that they were carried over from the curry paste, flavourings, soya sauces or other sauces, in which these preservatives are permitted to be used. The Council has notified the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department of the test findings.
The Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) established by Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives has recommended a person of 60 kg body weight should not take more than 300 mg benzoic acid or 1,500 mg sorbic acid per day.
Therefore, even with the sample detected with the highest level of benzoic acid (39 mg/kg), a 60 kg person is unlikely to ingest the preservative in excess of the ADI - unless he or she consumes every day as much as 7.7 kg or 17 lb of the sampled food in question.
So, by and large, vegetarians or vegetarian food lovers can put their heart at ease in the normal consumption of their favourite diet.
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