Problems with food sweeteners

Sweeteners are an important class of food additives indispensable to the modern food production and processing industry and can be used in a variety of foods. Despite the continuous development of the safety standards and regulatory system for food additives in China, due to the rapid development of the sweetener industry, some enterprises and producers are blindly pursuing profits, and there are still problems with the illegal use of sweeteners in the production and processing process to varying degrees, mainly including over-range and over-limit use of sweeteners, abuse of compound sweeteners, repeated use of sweeteners, non-compliance with labelling regulations, unqualified quality of sweeteners and use of sweeteners. 

The use of sweeteners can be used to cover up quality defects in food products or to adulterate, forge or falsify food products. Food producers should regulate the production and use of sweeteners in a reasonable manner to avoid causing health hazards to consumers. Consumers should also be sensible about sweeteners, buy food from regular channels, eat sensibly and have balanced nutrition.

Major problems in the use of sweeteners

GB 2760-2014 National Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Additives is the current mandatory standard regulating the use of food additives in China, which sets out in detail the principles, varieties and scope of use of food additives in China. The GB 2760-2014 National Standard for the Use of Food Additives is the current mandatory standard governing the use of food additives in China.

In recent years, the State has increased the special treatment and supervision and sampling of food additives, and the phenomenon of over-range and over-limit use of food additives has been improved, but from the results of food safety supervision and sampling announced in recent years, the proportion of samples failing due to over-range and over-limit use of food additives in the overall unqualified samples is high, partly because food production and operators in the process of food production and operation activities In the course of food production and operation activities, food additives were added to food in violation of food additive use standards, exceeding the scope of use and the maximum use limit, and also involving unqualified sweeteners.

Use of sweeteners beyond the scope

Each food additive has a specific scope of use according to the Food Additive Use Standard and is not allowed to be used beyond its scope, and cannot be used in foods other than those specified. Many food producers and processors do not comply with the requirements to expand the scope of use or use in food varieties that have not been approved, which are beyond the scope of use. A representative example of the over-use of sweeteners that has occurred in the past is the "problematic steamed buns" that have been frequently exposed in the media in recent years, which involved the illegal addition of sweetener to steamed buns to replace brown sugar or white sugar and increase the sweetness of the buns. Sweetener is a common sweetener and is widely used. 

According to our standards, it can be used in foods such as candied fruits, jams, pastries, biscuits and breads, but sweetener cannot be used in steamed buns, buns and other fermented flour products. This is essentially the use of food additives for the purpose of adulteration, falsification and forgery, and is a typical case of illegal use of sweeteners beyond their scope.