Is edible sodium metabisulfite harmful to human body

Sodium metabisulfite is a food additive used as a preservative, bleaching agent and bulking agent in food processing. When used as a bleaching agent, it is limited to fumigation and cannot be used for bleaching by direct contact with objects such as soaking. Sodium metabisulfite can cause liver and kidney damage in humans, and can cause acute poisoning and even death. In daily life, buyers can make simple judgments from the color and smell of food. If you buy water chestnuts, you can see whether the skin color is too bright. If it is bright, you can smell it again. If it is a fruit, you can cut off the skin and smell it.

The role of sodium metabisulfite in preventing browning. Enzymatic browning often occurs in fruits and potato foods. Sodium metabisulfite is a reducing agent that has a strong inhibitory effect on the activity of polyphenol oxidase. 0.0001% of sulfur dioxide can Reduce enzyme activity by 20%, 0.001% of sulfur dioxide can completely inhibit enzyme activity, can prevent enzymatic browning; In addition, it can consume oxygen in food tissue to play the role of deoxygenation; sulfuric acid can be added with glucose The reaction prevents the glucose and amino acids in the food from undergoing a sugar-ammonia reaction, thereby having the effect of preventing browning.