Recently, reports of "hair from barber shops being recycled and used to make soy sauce" broke out on the Internet. The report said that some people recycled broken hair from barber shops and used it to make soy sauce. As soon as the news came out, it triggered a discussion on food safety on the Internet.

In fact, this is not "news". Reports of "hair sauce" appear several times a year. So, what exactly is "hair soy sauce"? How should consumers correctly face this problem?

Essentially, soy sauce is a mixture of water, sugar, amino acids, salt, nucleotides, various flavor substances and color substances. The amino acids, nucleotides and other substances are obtained from the raw materials for making soy sauce, such as soybeans, wheat, bran, etc., through microbial fermentation and decomposition. Soy sauce that is completely produced through the brewing process and does not add other flavorings and food additives is called brewed soy sauce. The soy sauce obtained by adding plant hydrolyzed protein seasoning liquid and other food additives to the brewed soy sauce is called prepared soy sauce. my country's standards and regulations stipulate that prepared soy sauce must be marked with a "prepared soy sauce" label.

The amino acid content in soy sauce determines the quality of soy sauce. Our country stipulates that the amino acid nitrogen content in soy sauce must be higher than 0.7g/100l before it can be rated as first-class soy sauce. The emergence of formulated soy sauce is to add appropriate substances to soy sauce that cannot meet relevant standards through brewing to meet amino acid nitrogen and other physical and chemical indicators. Theoretically, there is no essential difference in safety between prepared soy sauce that meets standards and brewed soy sauce.

However, in order to reduce costs, some unscrupulous traders use illegally sourced animal raw materials such as hair and leather for acid hydrolysis. Since hair, skin, etc. are also made of protein, amino acid liquid can also be obtained through hydrolysis, and then added to soy sauce as an additive. What's more, this amino acid liquid is directly blended with other flavors and other substances to produce inferior soy sauce. This is where “hair sauce” comes from.

Since the hygienic quality of illegally purchased hair, animal hair, leather, etc. cannot be guaranteed, the protein hydrolyzate obtained therefrom will contain harmful substances such as heavy metals and benzene-containing compounds, which is prohibited by my country’s food hygiene standards. This type of protein hydrolyzate is used as a food additive. Therefore, it is illegal to use hair, etc. to make soy sauce.

From the perspective of market size, "hair soy sauce" is mostly produced in small underground workshops and sold to markets in rural areas, urban-rural fringes and other areas. In large markets, due to stricter supervision, the probability of occurrence is not high. So consumers don't have to panic. When buying soy sauce, you should try to choose regular supermarkets and buy regular and trustworthy brand products. At the same time, relevant quality supervision and law enforcement departments should intensify investigation and crackdown on "hair soy sauce" production dens, so that consumers can consume with more confidence.