1, potassium ferricyanide is a common anticaking agent, which is allowed to be used at home and abroad.

2, whether or not to use potassium ferricyanide and the nature of the product is related to, for example, large particles of sea salt can not be added.

3, imported salt, export salt are added potassium ferricyanide, "foreigners do not use" is pure fabrication.

4, potassium ferricyanide compliance use will not cause health hazards, the properties of salt also determines its intake is very small.

Have you ever bought salt? You've seen the bag? Did you see something called potassium ferricyanide in the ingredient list? Ah, potassium cyanide, a highly toxic substance!

Some people on the Internet then revealed the inside story, that this thing is not used by foreigners, but fooled the Chinese people, and that it will poison people if they consume it for a long time.

This is another plot by US imperialism to destroy China, we must be sober!

Potassium ferrocyanide and potassium cyanide

In fact, potassium ferrocyanide and potassium cyanide are two different things. Potassium ferrocyanide is a legal food additive used as an anti-caking agent.

Potassium ferricyanide, also known as potassium hemocyanate, has the chemical formula K4[Fe(CN)6], whereas potassium cyanide has the chemical formula KCN.

The difference lies in the fact that the cyanide root inside potassium ferricyanide is firmly bonded to the iron element, and so its acute toxicity is several hundred times worse compared to that of potassium cyanide.

Its acute toxicity parameter, LD50, is about 1.6-3.2 grams per kilogram of body weight, which is close to that of table salt, and is a low toxicity substance.

What about chronic toxicity?

Well, even if potassium ferricyanide can't kill you at once, you can't eat it every day.

Yes, it depends on its chronic toxicity.

According to the World Health Organization and the International Food and Agriculture Organization, the safe lifetime dose of potassium ferricyanide is 0.025 milligrams per kilogram of body weight.

That means for a 60-kilogram person, a daily intake of 1.5 milligrams is perfectly fine.

According to China's national standard, the maximum amount of potassium ferricyanide that can be added to table salt is 10 milligrams per kilogram.

If you want to eat out of order, a 60-kilogram person should eat at least 3 taels of salt every day, every day, oh, I guess the poison does not die first.

Release potassium cyanide?

The combination of cyanogen and iron in potassium ferricyanide is so strong that it is difficult to detect the cyanogen even in a solution of potassium ferricyanide.

Theoretically, potassium ferrocyanide can decompose at high temperatures to produce potassium cyanide, but this temperature must be at least 400 degrees, and the average home cooking temperature can't reach that high.

By 200 degrees or so you start to get a lot of grease and smoke, and by 330 degrees the coating on non-stick pans starts to melt.

Also, it says potassium ferricyanide and potassium iodide react violently ....

You don't have to be so righteous about not being good at chemistry.

What if? I said what if

Some people just don't feel comfortable with it, what if it really breaks down and produces potassium cyanide? There's really no need to worry.

It takes about 0.1 grams or more of potassium cyanide to poison an adult, and 1 kilogram of table salt contains at most 0.01 grams of potassium ferricyanide.

Even if all the potassium ferricyanide is "magically" broken down by you, you would have to eat dozens of kilograms of salt to be poisoned.

What you don't realize is that many foods contain cyanogenic glycosides, which actually release small amounts of hydrocyanic acid, but you won't die of poisoning.

Do foreign countries let it be used

Potassium ferrocyanide is actually also mainly used as an anticaking agent in foreign countries.

Potassium/sodium/calcium ferricyanide can be used in the European Union with a limit of 20 mg/kg.

The U.S. can use sodium ferrocyanide, and the limit (rounded up) is actually the same as China.

Japan can use potassium/sodium/calcium ferricyanide, with limits twice as high as China's.

Australia and New Zealand are also allowed, with potassium and sodium ferrocyanide approved.

Do foreign countries use it

"Whether to use it or not" and "whether to use it or not" are two different things. There are rumors on the Internet that foreign countries have approved the use of potassium ferrocyanide, but they don't use it in practice, which means that they are tricking the Chinese people into using it.

First of all, I'm really impressed by how big the idea is.

But empty talk is no proof, let's use facts to speak.

First, let's take a look at the salt that China exports abroad.

About 95 percent of the salt from China Salt Jintan Salt Chemical Co., Ltd. is supplied to foreign markets, and the rest is supplied to Shanghai, where the salt is of the same standard, the same quality, and the same production line (the so-called "Three Together").

Some of the salt exported to 26 countries is potassium ferricyanide-added, including the U.S. and European markets.

Of course, it is true that salt exported to Japan does not contain potassium ferricyanide, but the main reason for this is not because it is toxic or harmful, nor is it because the Japanese government does not allow it to be added.

The main reason is that Japan is an island nation that has historically eaten mainly sea salt, which has large particles and therefore does not require anti-caking agents.

Then, look at pure imported table salt.

This is what a CCTV reporter saw at a major supermarket chain, salt imported from Spain that uses sodium ferrocyanide, a function with potassium ferrocyanide.

At an imported food supermarket in Beijing's Chaoyang District, the reporter also found five kinds of table salt that used ferrocyanide.

SOSALT salt from Italy, for example, has added sodium ferrocyanide.

MORTON salt from the Netherlands, which adds potassium ferricyanide

SAXA salt from Australia, which also adds sodium ferricyanide.

Two types of salt from BALEINE, France, add sodium ferricyanide.

Then, look at table salt sold abroad.

This is a product I found in a foreign supermarket from an Internet surrogate's flyer, with sodium ferrocyanide. (Code name E535)

This, again, is what I found online as a substitute, and it's the same as what the CCTV reporter saw at an imported-food supermarket in Chaoyang district, which also used an anti-caking agent. (535 is a code name for sodium ferrocyanide)

This is the best-selling salt on Amazon, the most famous foreign shopping site: the label says the anti-caking agent "sodium ferrocyanide" (sodium yellow blood salt).

This is from another foreign e-commerce site, salt from Switzerland, with an ingredient list labeled potassium ferricyanide.

Here's also a screenshot of a video provided by CCTV's overseas netizens confirming that salt with added ferrocyanide can be found in supermarkets in the US, UK, France and elsewhere as well.

See enough? The "foreigners do not eat, exclusively for the Chinese people to eat" routine, really someone believe it?