Three departments jointly call for a halt! Don’t eat this kind of food anymore!

Expert of this article: Zhang Zheng, PhD in Nutrition and Food Hygiene, Soochow University

Reviewer of this article: Ma Xianghua, Deputy Director of Endocrine and Metabolic Center, Director of Nutrition Department, and Doctoral Supervisor of Jiangsu Provincial People's Hospital

Chocolate, ice cream, cake, sushi... these foods are familiar to everyone.

But if they are plated with gold, they become gold foil chocolate, gold foil ice cream, and gold foil cake. Have you ever eaten them?

It is now popular in the market to add gold foil to food to enhance its "appearance", and naturally its value has doubled, but many people still buy it.

After reading this, many people may also want to try what is so special about gold foil food? Do foods inlaid with gold taste better? Don’t worry, read the following content first.

Recently, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the National Health Commission, and the General Administration of Customs jointly issued a notice, clearly stating that according to my country's food safety laws and regulations and food safety standards, gold foil, silver foil, gold powder and silver powder are not food additives and cannot be used in food production and operation.

Image source: News screenshot

Why did the three departments jointly call for a ban on gold foil foods? What foods contain gold foil? Is eating gold foil foods harmful to the body? Find out.

01

What is gold leaf food? Is it more advanced?

Gold foil is a thin sheet of gold forged from gold. Gold foil food refers to food with edible gold foil pasted on the surface or sprinkled with gold foil powder. The glittering appearance adds a bit of "nobleness" to the food.

But are gold leaf foods more premium? The answer is no!

The gold element in gold foil is not one of the 20 trace elements needed by the human body, and the gold foil itself has only a faint metallic taste. Not only does gold foil food fail to enhance the nutritional value and flavor of the food, but it also poses a potential health hazard.

Image source: News screenshot

Gold foil foods are only to satisfy people's psychological needs for luxury and novelty. The price of ordinary food ingredients has increased by dozens or even hundreds of times after being decorated with gold foil, which is a real way to rip off consumers.

02

Which foods are commonly made with gold leaf?

As early as 1983, the World Health Organization's Codex Committee on Food Additives included gold in the category of food additives, but gold foil has only been used in cooking in recent years.

As people's material living standards improve, their dietary needs have gradually shifted to eating better or even more expensive food. As the new darling of the "high-end" food world, gold foil food has also set off a "gold-eating" craze.

Common gold foil foods on the market include: gold foil pastries, gold foil ice cream, gold foil chocolate, and even gold foil lobster, gold foil steak, gold foil fruit, gold foil wine, etc. It can be said that everything can be gold foil.

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03

Can gold foil food be eaten? What are the dangers of eating it?

To determine whether gold foil food is edible, we must first talk about food-grade gold foil.

According to previous standards, the gold content of food-grade gold foil is usually 99.99% or above, and it cannot contain heavy metals such as copper and lead that can cause human poisoning. Although gold is a heavy metal, its chemical properties are inactive and cannot be digested by stomach acid or absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract. What you eat will come out the same.

The metal in gold foil is in atomic state, and only ionic gold salt compounds (such as auranofin, sodium gold thiomalate and potassium gold cyanide, etc.) are toxic to the human body. The suicides caused by swallowing gold in movies, TV shows and novels are not caused by the poisonous gold, but by large pieces of gold stuck in the throat or scratching the digestive tract, causing digestive tract bleeding and organ rupture, leading to death.

Gold foil is extremely thin and light. One cubic centimeter of gold can produce about 10 square meters of gold foil, which can be said to be as thin as a cicada's wing. The amount of gold eaten through gold foil food is very small, so food-grade gold foil itself is non-toxic to the human body.

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However, gold foil foods are not absolutely safe. Eating them in large quantities can burden the gastrointestinal tract and cause indigestion. If the merchant uses non-food grade gold foil, the gold foil may contain other metal elements that are harmful to human health. After consumption, it can be dissolved by stomach acid and absorbed by the intestines, which will cause harm to human health.

Some of the gold foil currently sold on the market is not real gold foil, but "fake gold foil" mixed with a large amount of other metals and pigments, which is more harmful to human health.

Therefore, whether the food is made of real gold foil or fake gold foil, it is not recommended to eat it. As a consumer, you should still look at these "gold-plated" "high-end foods" objectively and consume rationally and healthily.

04

Is gold foil considered a food additive?

In my country, food additives are defined as artificial or natural substances added to food to improve its quality, color, aroma and taste, as well as for the needs of preservation, freshness and processing.

However, gold foil itself has no taste, cannot improve the color, aroma, or taste of food, and cannot preserve food. Judging from its functional properties, gold foil clearly does not fall into the category of food additives.

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In January 2022, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a document clarifying that according to my country's food safety laws and regulations and food safety standards, gold and silver foil powder is not a food additive and cannot be used in food production and operation.

Therefore, gold foil cannot be added to food. Adding gold foil to food is illegal. If you find gold foil added to food during consumption, you can report it to the market supervision and management department.

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