Introduction: People often see vendors selling steaming hot corn cobs on their way home from work. Corn is rich in dietary fiber, and in today's era of promoting whole grain foods, more and more corn grain products are becoming popular. However, recent media exposure has revealed that a fried puffed snack, "Coffee Corn," is suspected of illegally adding saccharin. Long-term or excessive consumption of saccharin can cause harm to the human body. So, can we still eat corn cobs?
Some sweet corn is rich in polysaccharides
The safety of saccharin is controversial
Some vendors add sweeteners to process ordinary corn or sweet corn that is not sweet enough to attract consumers. Saccharin is a commonly used sweetener. Saccharin, also known as sweet spirit, has the chemical name sodium cyclamate. The sweetness of saccharin is 50 times that of sucrose. It provides no energy and does not cause blood sugar levels to rise. Therefore, saccharin was originally used to replace sucrose in food. At that time, this was undoubtedly good news for diabetics: they could enjoy sweetness without worrying about raising blood sugar. The application of saccharin has become more and more widespread, and it can be found in food, medicine, and cosmetics.
However, the safety of saccharin is highly controversial. In 1968, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found that saccharin might have teratogenic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic effects on rats. In 1969, when U.S. medical researchers conducted toxicological experiments on rats with saccharin, they found that the rats had testicular atrophy and reduced testicular weight, and speculated that the reason might be that saccharin is metabolized and decomposed into a toxic substance, cyclohexylamine, under the action of intestinal microorganisms. This experimental result also directly led to the U.S. National Research Council to reject saccharin. Subsequently, in 1970, the U.S. FDA banned the use of saccharin as a food additive. However, the safety assessment of saccharin did not end there. In the 1990s, the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the FDA conducted two re-examinations in succession, but the results still held that the existing evidence was not sufficient to prove that saccharin is carcinogenic. Nevertheless, saccharin is still banned for use in food in the United States today.
In China, saccharin is not allowed for use in fresh corn
In 1982, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reviewed the carcinogenicity of saccharin and concluded that saccharin is not carcinogenic. Therefore, although countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Japan prohibit the use of saccharin, many other countries, including China and more than 80 other countries such as Australia, allow its use in food. In China, saccharin is mainly used in carbonated drinks, canned food, preserved fruits, pickles, biscuits, and bread, and national standards also clearly limit its usage amount. However, saccharin is not allowed for use in fresh corn or in fried and puffed foods. Therefore, if someone uses it, it is definitely a violation. But this does not mean that eating such food will be harmful, and people do not need to worry too much. FAO/WHO stipulates that the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) value for saccharin is 0-11 mg/kg bw, which means that for an adult weighing 60 kg, the daily intake should not exceed 660 mg. The sweetness of saccharin is 50 times that of sucrose, and the sweetness of 660 mg of saccharin is equivalent to 330 grams of sucrose. For a normal person, it is impossible to eat so much sugar every day.