Recently, a news on the Internet that "eating roasted sausage causes cancer" has attracted much attention. Roasted sausage is a favorite snack for many children and young people. Vendors selling sausages in schools, railway stations, shopping malls and other places can be seen everywhere, and they are very cheap. The price is between 1 yuan and 4 yuan, which can be said to be one of the delicious and cheap foods. But how much meat is contained in these delicious and cheap sausages? What kind of meat is used? Will it cause cancer to our body?

The common sausages on the market are "crispy bone sausage", "black pepper sausage" and "pure meat sausage", and the prices of these sausages are quite cheap, some of them are only a few cents, and the boss will clap his chest and swear to tell you that they are definitely pork sausages. In fact, the meat content in these sausages is very small, and it can even be said that there is basically no meat. The price of pork is generally more than ten yuan a catty. If this catty of pork is made into sausage, it is estimated that it can be made into 3~4 pieces. The retail price of this cheap sausage in the supermarket is only one yuan, and the wholesale price is even cheaper than you can imagine. As the saying goes, no one wants to do business at a loss, let alone a smart business.

In fact, most of the sausages we eat now are made of imitation meat. According to the national standard, only the protein content in the sausage is regulated, but the meat content in the sausage is not regulated. Therefore, savvy merchants mainly add soy protein as the main raw material in making sausages. If you read the ingredients list of the sausage yourself, you will find that food additives such as sodium pyrophosphate, potassium sorbate and nitrite are added to the sausage, which are used to increase the taste and coloring of the sausage.

Nitrite is added in the processing of sausage, which is both a preservative and a color fixative. Although nitrite will not produce carcinogens, nitrite will be converted into nitrosamines in the human body, which will lead to esophageal cancer, gastric cancer and so on after long-term consumption. Nitrite can enter the fetus through the placenta, and infants within 6 months are particularly sensitive to nitrates. Long-term consumption of food containing nitrite by pregnant women has teratogenic effect on the fetus. Excessive intake of nitrite can lead to methemoglobinemia in children. Because a large amount of nitrite in human body combines with hemoglobin in blood, the content of methemoglobin will increase, because methemoglobin can not combine with oxygen, which will lead to hypoxia and even death. In fact, many cooked foods we see are added with nitrite, and the color of normal cooked meat is dark red, while the color of cooked foods added with nitrite will be very bright.

When meat food is barbecued with open fire and high temperature, the fat will decompose or polymerize at high temperature to produce harmful substances, such as benzopyrene. Benzopyrene is an organic compound with obvious carcinogenic effect. According to research, the death rate of lung cancer increases by 5% when the content of benzopyrene in living environment increases by 1%.

Sausage containing a lot of food additives belongs to a class of carcinogens assessed by the World Health Organization. When these additives are metabolized in the human body, they will increase the burden on the liver and kidneys, induce diseases in the liver and kidneys, and even lead to fetal malformation and carcinogenesis in severe cases. Experts remind that the nutrients contained in cheap sausage are minimal, and it is not recommended for people to eat it for a long time for their own health.