The truth about the rumor that ten thousand home-made soy sauce can cause cancer? This is something few would expect

Soy sauce (also known as soy sauce) originated in China. The main ingredients of soy sauce are soybeans, wheat, salt and fermenters. The method of making soy sauce is to ferment soybeans and wheat with salt and fermenters. Then let the mixture ferment for a while and pasteurize before bottling. Besides the traditional production method, soy sauce can also be produced by acid hydrolysis. In soy sauce, there are nutrients such as calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, sodium…

Is eating too much soy sauce harmful to the human body?

Many sources say that eating soy sauce can cause cancer. In fact, the cancer risk of eating soy sauce stems from the caramel coloring in this condiment. In industrial production, most caramel colors are produced by adding ammonia, which contains 4-methylimidazole which can be harmful to health. The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer has determined that 4-methylimidazole is a group 2B carcinogen.

However, don’t worry too much. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations/World Health Organization points out that the amount of soy sauce we consume in general will not cause health problems for the human body. Similarly, the California Office of Environmental Risk Assessment calculates that if a person consumes 16 micrograms of 4-methylimidazole per day, that person’s risk of developing cancer increases by only one in 100,000. Therefore, eating a normal amount of soy sauce per day is not a threat to health.

Eating soy sauce is harmful to the body or not? (Illustration).

Regulations of many Asian countries, such as China, specify that the concentration of 4-methylimidazole in caramel colors produced by the addition of ammonia should not exceed 200 mg. Meanwhile, the concentration of 4-methylimidazole detected in water was relatively small compared with the cut-off value of 200 mg.

In addition, it should be noted that the caramel color content of dark soy sauce is more than that of light soy sauce. In 2017, 21 types of soy sauce were tested for quality, 11 types of soy sauce were found to contain trace amounts of 4-methylimidazole. Among them, the 4-methylimidazole content of dark soy sauce was significantly higher than that of baby soy sauce and light soy sauce. Therefore, to be safe, do not eat dark black soy sauce, it is best to choose light colored soy sauce.

Eating soy sauce harms the kidney?

According to health experts, soy sauce does indeed contain a certain amount of salt. Eating too much soy sauce can lead to the body’s tolerance of too much salt, which is harmful to the body. According to the “Dietary Guidelines for the People of China” released in 2016, each person should eat no more than 6 g of salt per day. Meanwhile, 100 ml of soy sauce usually contains about 18 g of salt. That is, eating an average of six teaspoons of soy sauce a day will hit the recommended daily salt mark. Therefore, if you eat within this recommendation then there is nothing to worry about.