Light dry sea cucumber is divided into four grades according to the standard of aquatic industry: special grade, first grade, second grade and third grade. It is mainly differentiated according to the amount of salt content in the dried sea cucumber. The process is through the live sea cucumber to remove the viscera, cleaning, boiling, salting, shrinking, drying, desalination, re-drying and other processing of sea cucumber products. Lightly dried sea cucumber is the best among sea cucumber products, which has no sugar and low water and is convenient for storage. Lightly dried sea cucumber is the product with salt content of 5%-40%, which is the main product of sea cucumber at present and also the product with the highest hydration multiplier. Lightly dried sea cucumber has well defined epidermis and peduncle (the sucker of sea cucumber) with black or dark brown appearance. The water content is the lowest. Special grade and first grade light dried sea cucumbers may be small in size, but the hairiness can reach fifteen or eighteen times. Third grade lightly dried sea cucumber is usually around twelve times, sea cucumber is worth every penny. The advantages of lightly dried sea cucumber are easier storage and transportation, longer shelf life, low processing cost and simple; the disadvantages are similar, the processing will make some nutrients of sea cucumber loss, consumption of hair process is more cumbersome.

Four, salt-dried sea cucumber

Salt-dried sea cucumber is salted to increase the weight of the sea cucumber as well as to facilitate the preservation of the processing, which is the most traditional way of processing sea cucumbers and has a history of thousands of years. Salt-dried sea cucumber usually has a layer of salt grains or salt foam attached to its exterior, so its exterior is white in color and no clear skin and small feet can be seen. For good quality salt-dried sea cucumbers, the hairiness may reach about ten times, but it is hard to say for poor quality ones. Salt-dried sea cucumbers are usually boiled in water, then salt is added to make salting treatment, baked sea cucumbers are dried in the sun, created in a jar, and dried naturally. The advantages of salt-dried sea cucumber are shelf life up to several years, convenient transportation and storage; simple processing method and low cost. However, the disadvantages are also obvious: nutritional loss during processing, less than 10% nutritional residue, and the remaining nutrients are difficult to be absorbed; the process of food preparation is cumbersome; and some unscrupulous traders will also salt sea cucumbers several times in order to increase their weight.

Conclusion: Nowadays, the counterfeiting process is so sophisticated that some traders are hard to distinguish, not to mention consumers. It is recommended that consumers buy sea cucumber with QS brand, or buy a small amount of dried sea cucumber and soak it to see the effect before buying.