National standard for bean sprouts to be issued soon, production and sales will have a basis to follow

Recently, the "National Food Safety Standard for Bean Sprouts (Draft)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Draft") was released for public comment. In this draft, residue limits are explicitly specified for 6-benzylaminopurine, gibberellin, sodium 4-chlorophenoxyacetate and ethylene. This also means: these several "biological growth regulators" can be legally used in bean sprout production.

On November 15, the Bean Sprout Production Technology Forum and Bean Sprout Food Safety and Standards Seminar, hosted by the Bean Products Professional Committee of the China Food Industry Association, was held in Shanghai. The controversy over "toxic bean sprout" cases became the focus of discussion among attending enterprise representatives and industry scholars.

Regarding the "National Food Safety Standard for Bean Sprouts" (Draft) released for public comment a week earlier, attendees believed that limiting the physicochemical index of "6-benzylaminopurine" to less than or equal to 0.2mg/kg, although "stricter than foreign standards," still conforms to actual conditions, and based on the very small residue amount of this substance, "it could even be lower."

Compliant use of growth regulators is harmless

Bean sprouts formed by germinating beans are composed of roots (lateral roots, main root), stems and leaves (cotyledons). What people eat are the relatively tender cotyledons and bean sprout stems. Bean sprout roots, because they contain more sprout fiber, have poor edibility.

Using 6-benzylaminopurine to produce bean sprouts can increase the germination rate, making the bean sprouts "rootless, with good taste and appearance." But in recent years, due to the frequent occurrence of "toxic bean sprout" cases, rootless agent has been considered a "toxic and harmful substance." Is "6-benzylaminopurine" toxic or not?

"Growth regulators used at very low concentrations have no effect on the human body," said Ye Zixin, a professor at the College of Agriculture of Zhejiang University. "I began researching plant growth regulators in 1956 and taught plant hormone courses at university. After consulting a large amount of material, I found that no plant growth regulator in the world is carcinogenic or teratogenic."

Additive-free bean sprout technology is the development direction

In recent years, the use of "rootless agent" has been considered illegal, and some industry insiders began looking for substitutes. For example, the Japanese imported equipment represented by Shen Fuxin uses ethylene, a plant hormone, to replace traditional plant growth regulators.

Zhejiang sprout farmer Jin Peng believes that imported equipment is expensive, and the quality of bean sprouts produced by the additive-free method is not controllable. A slight lapse will cause roots to grow, and it will also raise costs. These costs will ultimately be passed on to consumers.

Bai Xuechun, deputy general manager in charge of technology at Henan Green Zhongyuan Modern Agriculture Group Co., Ltd., also said that his company currently uses the ethylene method to produce mung bean sprouts. Although the mung bean sprouts produced are no different in quality from bean sprouts produced using regulators, the yield is only 70%. Moreover, after using ethylene, the price of bean sprouts soared. "Now in the Zhengzhou market, bean sprouts are already a high-end vegetable. Cauliflower, such a high-end vegetable, is cheaper than our bean sprouts."

Shen Fuxin admitted that bean sprouts produced using the ethylene method have lower yields than those using growth regulators, and the environmental control requirements for bean sprout growth are higher, while production equipment costs are also higher.

In Wu Yuefang's view, the use of plant growth regulators in bean sprout growth is safe, and there is no safety risk. Bean sprout production technology should continue to advance toward a more advanced, additive-free direction. "In the end, the most ideal state to achieve is additive-free, but at present this technology is not yet mature."