According to the report of Voice of China, China Central Radio and Television Station, for many young people, visiting online red shops is the joy of life. Whenever a new online celebrity store opens, "planting grass" and "punching in" become the key words on social media. Recently, however, online celebrity stores and online celebrity brands have encountered a crisis of collective trust. Some merchants’ behavior of shoddy and ignoring food safety has also sounded the alarm for consumers.
With the word "online celebrity", it seems that "the real thing" is not important, but the publicity stunt is the key. Coconut juice, apple juice, peach juice … … Such names will not appear on the menu of online celebrity products, but instead: green coconut, sago, peach, fairy grass … …
What exactly are the ingredients in these products? What is sago? What kind of grass is Xiancao?
pearl
I believe many people’s first impression of online celebrity’s catering is the milk tea shop. Why is milk tea popular? The answer may come from: pearls.
△ Image from the Internet
The round "pearls" in milk tea drinks are particularly "Q-bomb" and chewy. Its unique taste contributes to the flavor of milk tea. Obviously, the "pearls" in milk tea are not pearls in clam shells. So, what is it made of?
Ruan Guangfeng, director of the Science and Technology Department of Kexin Food and Nutrition Information Exchange Center and a member of the Expert Committee of China Internet Joint Rumor-dispelling Platform, said that the pearl in bubble tea is a powder-round product with starch as the main raw material, and cassava starch is the most commonly used. In order to make the taste more chewy, wheat protein is also used. Glutenin is elastic, can form a network structure with water, and can better combine with starch to make pearls more elastic and delicious.
sago
Don’t think that bubble tea can go on forever. Innovation and change is a major sales strategy of online celebrity brand. When putting pearls in milk tea is no longer novel, milk tea brands begin to try to put other ingredients, such as sago. Perhaps many friends still believe that sago is made of rice. But just like "pearls are not pearls", "sago is not rice".
Sago is made from the starch of sago coconut. Xigu Coconut and Coconut are "relatives" and originated in Southeast Asia. Its appearance looks like both coconut and palm. There is a lot of starch in the stem of Xigu coconut. Scrape off the starch, wash it, let it go and air it. When it is not completely dry, shake it like a lantern festival, and it will become a grain of sago, which can be added to the dessert after cooking.
△ Simi pictures come from the Internet.
Coconut
There is also a common ingredient in dessert, called coconut, which tastes elastic, crisp and gelatinous, and looks like coconut meat. But friends who have eaten know that their tastes are not the same. The so-called coconut is obviously harder and chewier. So, where did coconut come from? Does it have anything to do with coconut?
Ruan Guangfeng introduced that coconut fruit is the product of coconut water fermented by Bacillus grape vinegar. Coconut water will be fermented to produce bacterial cellulose, which will float on the surface of coconut water, and after accumulation, it will form a thick white substance, which can be made into coconut fruit after being fished out.
△ Coconut pictures come from the Internet.
Guiling ointment
In other words, pearls and sago are starch products, and coconut is not a product made directly from coconut pulp. So, are the names of these online celebrity dessert ingredients so different from the raw materials?
Ruan Guangfeng said that except for Guiling Ointment. The main raw materials of Guiling Ointment are tortoise and poria cocos, and the tortoise’s abdominal shell is used to make Guiling Ointment, which is rich in animal collagen, which is also the main reason why Guiling Ointment can solidify into a frozen state. Poria cocos is a large fungus of Polyporaceae, similar to mushrooms and ganoderma lucidum, but it is the sclerotium of Poria cocos that is used to make Guiling ointment.
△ Turtle paste picture comes from the Internet.
Immortal grass
A online celebrity ingredient that looks more like Guiling Ointment is called Xiancao, which is also black gel. It seems that it has nothing to do with grass, but it is really made of grass. It is derived from an annual herbaceous perennial plant of Mesona of Labiatae, called Mesona, also called Mesona. Boil it into soup, add starch, stir and cool, and it will become gel.
"Safety on the tip of the tongue" cannot be changed.
Although the ingredients of these foods in online celebrity are not directly harvested plants like melons, fruits and vegetables, the ingredients and processing methods used can still guarantee safety if they meet the standards. But even so, now more and more friends realize that many online celebrity drinks contain a lot of sugar and calories in order to please the taste buds, and excessive intake is also unhealthy.
Ruan Guangfeng said that in most cases, online celebrity foods are flavored with some sugar for good taste, and the energy is generally not low. It is recommended that you don’t eat more, and you should also ask the store to add less sugar when ordering. In addition, we should pay attention to whether the environment of the store is hygienic and whether the raw materials are refrigerated. In summer, the risk of food spoilage caused by microorganisms is relatively high, so it is not recommended to buy food from mobile vendors.
Online celebrity’s restaurants have high value and good shape, but the quality can’t be a mess. Names and ingredients can be changed, but what cannot be changed is the safety on the tip of the tongue.
Producer | Bai Zhonghua
Reporter Yang Guang from the General Desk | Fu Wei
Editor | Yang Yang Peng Yuji Bi Liwei