Caustic soda, also known as caustic soda, caustic soda, chemical name sodium hydroxide, is a white solid at room temperature, has strong corrosiveness, is easily soluble in water, and its aqueous solution is strongly alkaline, which is a very commonly used alkali. There are two kinds of caustic soda available in the market: solid and liquid: solid is white, with block, flake, rod, granular, and brittle; pure liquid caustic soda is colorless and transparent liquid. Caustic soda is widely used in many industries such as chemical industry, printing and dyeing, papermaking, environmental protection, etc. It is divided into industrial grade and food grade (food additive sodium hydroxide). The main difference between the two is not its purity, but lead, arsenic, mercury There are differences in the content of toxic substances such as industrial grades, and industrial grades cannot be used in the food industry due to their high content of toxic substances.
Some criminals illegally use industrial caustic soda in the production of squid, sea cucumber, fresh milk and other foods. The main reason is that industrial caustic soda is low in cost and can improve the appearance and taste of products, such as making squid and sea cucumber brighter, and increasing the The volume and weight of aquatic products. Industrial caustic soda is added to raw milk as a preservative to cover up the rancid taste of raw milk. Eating foods containing more caustic soda can easily burn the digestive tract and damage the gastric mucosa. At the same time, industrial caustic soda contains many heavy metals, among which the contents of Pb, As, and Hg are relatively high, and these heavy metals have serious harm to the human body. In view of this, on December 15, 2008, China's National Health and Family Planning Commission (former Ministry of Health) issued the "List of Non-edible Substances That May Be Illegally Added in Foods (First Batch)", which clearly listed industrial caustic soda as illegal. Added inedible substances.
