In the scorching summer, "cool foods" such as ice cream, ice cream, and popsicles are gradually selling well, and many convenience stores in residential areas are doing hot business in "wholesale of cold drinks". What is the difference between these frozen drinks, both of which are "cooling tools"? How can consumers choose to eat safely and with peace of mind? Cold drinks: The production standards are different. From the perspective of food classification, all kinds of ice cream that people see in supermarket freezers belong to frozen drinks. Zhong Kai, Director of Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center, stated in an interview with China Consumer News that according to the "National Food Safety Standard for Frozen Beverages and Ingredients" (GB2759-2015), frozen beverages are mainly made from several types of raw materials, including drinking water, sugar, milk, dairy products, fruit and vegetable products, legumes, edible oils, etc., with or without the addition of other excipients, food additives, food nutritional fortifiers, and processed through ingredients, pasteurization or sterilization, coagulation or freezing, including ice cream, ice cream, slush, popsicles, sweet ice, edible ice, etc. Taking common ice cream, popsicles, and ice cream as examples, although they all belong to the category of "cool food", the differences are still very obvious from the perspective of the raw materials and production processes specified in relevant standards. According to the national standards "Frozen Beverage Ice Cream" (GB/T 31114-2014) and "Frozen Beverage Ice Cream" (GB/T 31119-2014), the types of raw materials for ice cream and ice cream are roughly the same, including drinking water, dairy products, egg products, fruit products, soy products, etc. The main difference between the two is the expansion rate. When making ice cream, air needs to be injected for puffing, which has a high puffing rate and a more delicate and soft taste. Ice cream has a high water content, low swelling rate, and relatively high hardness. According to the "Frozen Beverage Popsicles" (SB/T 10016-2008), popsicles mainly refer to hard cold food made with water and sugar. Overall, popsicles are a low-key and down-to-earth presence, but sometimes to attract consumers, they often invite collaborations with juices, fruit grains, pigments, and other products to enhance their color and flavor. Ice popsicles only have sugar and almost no milk fat. They have relatively low calories but a harder taste. Eating cold drinks: Carefully checking the ingredient list for various additives in frozen drinks has always been a "little dilemma" that many people cannot erase when enjoying delicious food. Zhong Kai analyzed that the use of food additives in frozen drinks is mainly for four purposes: seasoning, coloring, shaping, and emulsifying, otherwise it cannot maintain good flavor and form. Regardless of the type of additive, as long as it is operated in accordance with the applicable scope and dosage specified in the National Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Additives (GB 2760-2014), it is safe. Some frozen drinks, such as locust bean gum, guar gum, etc., have more "right and wrong" than others. They are actually thickeners, mainly derived from plant extracts. Like apple pectin, they belong to water-soluble dietary fiber and are generally excreted from the body after only passing through the intestines, without being absorbed by the human body. In addition to various "gums" that make people conflicted, there are also many people who are concerned that vegetable fat ice cream or ice cream contains trans fats. Zhong Kai analyzed that the three cannot be simply and roughly equated: vegetable fat, vegetable fat powder, and trans fat. If vegetable oil is not fully hydrogenated, it will produce trans fatty acids. If completely hydrogenated, the resulting fat is saturated fat. Specifically, consumers can check if there are words such as hydrogenated vegetable oil, cocoa butter substitute, and vegetable fat powder in the ingredient list. If so, it indicates that hydrogenated vegetable oil has been added. Next, you can check the content of trans fatty acids in the nutrition table. According to the national standard, if the content of trans fatty acids is below 0.3g/100g, it can be marked as "zero". For a few tens of grams of ice cream or ice cream, this amount is still safe. Storing cold drinks: Don't buy deformed and clumped drinks. How to choose your favorite frozen drinks? Zhong Kai reminds consumers that no matter how greedy they are, they cannot be lazy and should carefully check information such as ingredient lists and nutritional ingredient lists. Zhong Kai reminds that for frozen products produced by legitimate manufacturers, the packaging label should clearly indicate information such as ingredient list, manufacturer, production date, food production license number, product standard number, etc. Products without product information on the packaging or with incomplete labeling information may pose safety risks due to inadequate product quality control. According to the national standard requirements, raw materials with an added amount greater than 2% must be displayed in the product ingredient list, and must be sorted according to the size of the added amount. That is, the larger the added amount, the higher the ranking in the ingredient list. Whether ice cream and ice cream are delicious or not can also be determined by the content of fat and carbohydrates in the nutrition table. Generally speaking, those with more fat are softer, while those with more carbohydrates have a better taste. However, the more delicious frozen drinks are, the lower their health index may be. From a safety perspective, storage conditions are factors that require special attention. Zhong Kai reminded that according to national standards, the temperature of low-temperature display cabinets for frozen drinks should be below -15 ° C. Display cabinets that exceed this temperature may pose a risk of microbial proliferation. According to the sampling data released by regulatory authorities in recent years, the main reasons for unqualified frozen drinks are inadequate hygiene control during production and processing, as well as microbial contamination caused by non-standard operations in transportation, storage, or sales. Zhong Kai reminds consumers to be wary of sales environments where storage does not meet standards when choosing frozen drinks, and to choose products with intact packaging and normal shapes as much as possible. If the packaging is damaged, cracked, the shape of the contents changes, or even the sandwich that should have flowed from the inner layer to the outer layer forms clumps, it is likely caused by repeated melting and freezing. Such products should not be purchased. (Lai Xin She)