No, "shark fin" generally refers to shark fins, and skates are not sharks.

Shark fin is often referred to as "shark's fin" in folklore. As one of China's traditional and valuable food, it was first seen in "Song Huayao", is one of the mountain treasures, shark fins, shark shark fins, shark fins, sand shark fins, Jinshi Cai, etc., specifically refers to the shark fins of the fine filamentous cartilage, by the sharks of the chest, abdomen, tail and other places of fin fins drying made.

Dishes made from protected animals, such as shark fins, are not allowed to be served in official receptions, according to China's regulations.

Shark fins are edible because the fins of sharks contain a kind of fin tendon shaped like vermicelli, which contains about 80 percent protein, as well as fats, sugars and other minerals, but are difficult to absorb, so eating an egg absorbs more nutrients than shark fins do. Sharks are hunted in large numbers for their valuable cooking ingredients because of the windfall profits.

Fake shark fins harm

Fake shark fins easy to eat industrial gelatin and sodium alginate:

Zhejiang Province, the Consumer Protection Commission of the province of a number of aquatic markets in the dry shark's fins sampling, the results show that one-third of the dry shark's fins cadmium exceeded the standard, which has a gold hook wings exceeded the standard of up to 10 times, and there are parts of methylmercury exceeded the standard. In the market, such as the wholesale market of agricultural and non-food products in the near river, no factory address, no type of shark's fin, no date of production, no shelf life, no contact phone number and so on "three-no products" are very common.

Fake shark's fins are likely to be contaminated if they are made with industrial gelatin and sodium alginate:

Chen Yinghao, a chemistry teacher at Hangzhou Senior High School, said that if fake shark's fins contain cadmium and methylmercury, they are likely to come from the raw materials for synthesizing shark's fins -- gelatin and sodium alginate. "Gelatin and sodium alginate, which are used in industrial production, may themselves have been contaminated with heavy metals."

Gelatin and sodium alginate are divided into food and industrial. "Food-grade gelatin and sodium alginate, which are sometimes used as food additives, have little effect on the human body if the dosage is controlled within safety standards." Chen said gelatin and sodium alginate, used as additives, can increase the product's consistency and "make synthetic shark fins more like real shark fins."

Zhang, who specializes in environmental engineering at the School of Quality and Safety Engineering at the China Academy of Weights and Measures, said that if edible gelatin and sodium alginate are added to food in moderation, they have little effect on the human body, "but if there are shady merchants who put industrial gelatin and sodium alginate, and use them in food, they may contain a lot of impurities in them, and it is not easy to say what kind of contamination they have been subjected to in the complex environment. It's hard to say."

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