If you're told that there are thickeners in jelly, you might find it familiar. If you're told that there are also thickeners in the congee you drink every day, you might get angry. Is this true? Is there any safe food left for us to eat? Let me tell you what thickeners are.
Thickeners are a type of food additive that are harmless to the human body in themselves. They are mainly used to improve and increase the viscosity of food and to give it a smooth, palatable texture. China currently approves 39 types of thickeners for use. If you are used to checking food labels when you shop, you won't be unfamiliar with words like xanthan gum, pectin, gelatin, and sodium carboxymethyl starch. Not all thickeners are synthetic; many are also extracted or fermented from natural foods, such as sodium alginate, agar, and xanthan gum. The country does not have strict regulations on the use of thickeners, which indicates that common thickeners do not harm the body.
So why are thickeners added to congee? This is more due to people's demand for texture; congee must be thick to be considered delicious. In fact, achieving this effect is not difficult; it only requires two conditions: sufficient ingredients and sufficient time. However, for a congee shop, implementing these conditions might be quite troublesome. If it's purely to increase the viscosity, that is understandable. But if it's just to save time,