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Clothing Surplus Leather Can Also Be Used As Edible Gelatin?

2009/5/27 14:14:00 42092

In Boxing County of central Shandong Province, there is a town of 33 thousand people living in the town of Xing Fu.

In the direction of the eastern suburb of the town, there is a river ditch, which flows through the brown green river all the year round.

The local people said that walking along the river was a series of handicraft shops dealing with the waste leather. The river that had not been built was the waste water discharged from the workshops all the year round.

The products of these handicraft shops are widely used in Food Jelly, ice cream and other food gelatin.

In April 29th, exhibition strong (alias) to Xing Fu town, the villagers told him that the river's water can not touch with hands, "because this water burning people, stained with skin will explode skin!"

Exhibition strong is a reporter of a city media in China.

He told the Beijing science and technology newspaper that when he entered a factory, he could see more than 20 rectangular pools arranged in sequence, and the green water in the pool was filled with piles of rubbish and scraps of leather.

On the other side, four or five leather washing machines were rumbling up and stirring in the huge pool.

The workers stirred the bag of lime with water and poured it into the cement pond where the leather waste was placed.

After 35 days, the skin soaked in lime is pulled out and put into the skin wash basin and washed with a skin cleaner.

After mixing for three or four hours, the dirty and hard waste leather became clean and soft.

Then put it in another pool and add industrial hydrochloric acid to soak again.

After being treated with lime and hydrochloric acid, the workers are then packed into plastic bags and poured into the boiler and boiled with water.

About 6~10 hours later, the gum in leather waste was absorbed into the water.

The workers pumped the water containing colloid into the open iron basins of the open air, letting them cool naturally.

During the cooling process, they also need to beautify the glue containing water by adding hydrogen peroxide.

Because hydrogen peroxide has the function of sterilization and bleaching.

After a night's cooling, the water in the iron pan turned into bright yellow or dark yellow soft jelly on the second morning.

The workers then split it up and let it dry in the natural air and sunlight, and then put it into a disintegrator.

At this point, the leftovers of leather shoes are turned into bright ginkgo granules.

These pparent particles are sold everywhere as "edible gelatin".

Wang Jingzhong, director of the China gelatin Association, said that gelatin is a high protein, and its amino acid content is very high. Regular consumption can provide protein and increase collagen content for the human body.

Gelatin is the ingredient of jelly, candy, ice cream and other auxiliary materials.

Regular gelatin is an organic substance extracted from animal skins or bones.

The method is to cut the animal skin into small pieces and put them into the pool, and then separate the fat and gum from the skin with lime. After heating, the gum is obtained, then the gel is frozen, dried and crushed into granules or powder.

Finally, the same quality particles or powders are processed and sold.

"Although the practice is almost the same as illegal manufacturers, every link in producing regular gelatin must be strictly audited."

Liu Zhongdong, secretary-general of Specialized Committee, "thickener emulsifying quality improver", said that raw materials commonly used for gelatin were shaved leather purchased from regular food factories or meat factories. After entering the workshop, everything was produced in sterile environment, and the size of the assets of the manufacturer was at least one million yuan.

Including the factory, every link of the product should meet the requirements of GB2760-1996 "Hygienic standard for the use of food additives".

However, huge profits have driven many small workshops to take risks and illegally produce gelatin.

Wang Jingzhong calculated to reporters: 1 tons of raw materials for regular consumption of gelatin, the price is as high as 2000~3000 yuan, and the average leather waste material, 1 tons only need 100~200 yuan.

However, after entering the market, the purchase price of 1 tons of edible gelatin is around 20 thousand ~3 yuan.

"At present, there are more than 100 illegal small factories producing gelatin in China, but only more than 20 of them have obtained production licenses.

Not only in Shandong, but in Hebei and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces are the bases of these fake gelatin.

Wang Jingzhong said that in local factories, workers will call these leather wastes "blue skin" and "white skin".

These skins are all scraps from leather shoes, fur coats or drums. When they are brought back to factories, they are mostly shreds of leather, and they are mixed with lots of mud.

"But the gelatin made is pparent and tasteless.

Consumers can not distinguish between regular gelatin and waste leather made of gelatin. "

Chen Min, a professor at China Agricultural University, told the Beijing science and technology newspaper that tanneries should use some chemical preparations containing chromium elements when tanning leather.

After tanning and finishing, some pieces of leather are left behind. These pieces of leather contain metal chromium which is harmful to human body.

Metal chromium can destroy human bones and hematopoietic stem cells. Long term consumption can lead to osteoporosis and serious cancer.

The harm of chromium to human health is a slow process. It usually appears in more than 2 years.

Wang Jingzhong said that the gelatin Association of China has also promoted a reagent to test the existence of chromium.

Consumers buy gelatin and cook it and pour it into the reagent. If it contains chromium, the color of the reagent will change.

However, the promotion effect of this reagent is not very obvious, because the people do not consciously do it.

In fact, as early as May 2004, the "junk gelatin" entering the food chain in Xing Fu town was exposed by the media.

At that time, the relevant health departments convened a special conference on illegal food additives special rectification work, and carried out a comprehensive attack on these small factories. However, after four years, the illegal manufacturers that had once disappeared disappeared again.

Liu Zhongdong said that in addition to interest driven, the emergence of illegal manufacturers has much to do with poor local supervision.

Liu Zhongdong used to use some leather leftovers to make gelatin in some places, and finally did nothing.

"Many small factories are the pillar industries."

Wang Jingzhong, who often inspects foreign gelatin manufacturers, believes that the management of edible gelatin can be learned from foreign experience.

Abroad, gelatin has been popularized to every family.

The market will pack gelatin into half a kilogram or a pound of small packets; in summer, people will buy these edible gelatin, and make it with fruit juice or fresh fruit processing, and then refrigerate for one hour, then use jelly.

"In foreign countries, there are very few factories producing gelatin."

Wang Jingzhong said that Germany has only 2 factories that produce gelatin, but their assets are above 100 billion yuan.

Their production workshop is all modern production, equipment is environmental protection equipment.

In the supervision of edible gelatin, the foreign countries are also very strict, which is unmatched by the relevant departments in China.

As long as they have an unqualified product, the government will order the plant to be shut down directly.

If there is a malaise in the course of consumption, the manufacturer will be sued.

Wang Jingzhong suggested that illegal consumption of gelatin must be eliminated from manufacturers.

Made of leather waste, it can only be industrial gelatin, which is mainly used as binder.

The industry and Commerce Bureau, the Quality Supervision Bureau, the health supervision department and other market supervision departments should regularly rectify the small factories, regularly inspect the products, and vigorously seal up those manufacturers without production licenses.