"Appearance ceiling" or "toxic black technology"? Be careful when you encounter this kind of zong leaves during the Dragon Boat Festival

During the Dragon Boat Festival, the fragrance of rice dumplings fills every household, but do you know?

Behind this traditional delicacy, there may be a "green secret" hidden - the green rice dumplings leaves !

The green zong leaves are not the "fresh meat" of the zongzi world, but the product of illegal use of chemical substances by unscrupulous merchants in order to make the old zong leaves look "young".

When you eat this kind of rice dumplings, you are not only eating nostalgic food, but also full of hidden dangers!

The common rice dumplings leaves on the market mainly include reed leaves and bamboo leaves .

Both have their merits, but both need to be fresh or properly preserved to ensure the authentic flavor of the zongzi.

01

Reed leaves are narrow and long, with a fresh fragrance . Reeds belong to the genus Phragmites, subfamily Phragmites of the Poaceae family. The culms are upright, 1-3 meters high, 1-4 centimeters in diameter, with more than 20 nodes. The internodes at the base and upper parts are shorter, and the longest internode is located at the 4th to 6th nodes at the lower part, 20-25 centimeters long, with wax powder below the nodes. The leaves are lanceolate linear, 30 centimeters long, 2 centimeters wide, glabrous, and the top is long and gradually pointed into a filamentous shape.

It is distributed throughout the country, growing along rivers, lakes, ponds, ditches and low wetlands.

02 The leaves of Indocalamus are broad and very tough. Indocalamus belongs to the genus Indocalamus, subfamily Bambusoideae, Poaceae. The height of the stem is 0.75-2 meters and the diameter is 4-7.5 mm. The internodes are about 25 cm long, and the longest can reach 32 cm. They are cylindrical and generally green. The leaves are broadly lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 20-46 cm long and 4-10.8 cm wide, with long pointed tips and cuneate bases. The lower surface is gray-green, densely covered with appressed short soft hairs or glabrous, and the leaf margins have fine serrations.

It is mostly produced in Xitianmu Mountain, Qu County in Zhejiang Province and Yangming Mountain in Lingling, Hunan Province, and grows on hillside roadsides.

The color of normal rice dumplings leaves is dark yellow.

However, in order to gain greater profits in the market competition, some zongzi leaf operators resort to chemical means - adding industrial copper sulfate and industrial copper chloride when soaking the zongzi leaves, so that the zongzi leaves that have lost their original green color can turn green again. Such zongzi leaves are called "regreened zongzi leaves."

In fact, this is caused by the copper element attaching to the rice dumplings leaves.

Excessive copper intake or long-term accumulation will cause a large amount of copper to accumulate in the liver, causing copper poisoning.

Once the disease occurs, it may cause cancer, deformity, or even endanger life.

So how do you distinguish this kind of "regreen" rice dumplings?

The mnemonic is simple and addictive: "Look, smell and boil, the fake leaves will disappear and the real taste will return; green rice dumplings are beautiful but you need to be careful, have a healthy and happy Dragon Boat Festival!"

The harvest season for Zongzi leaves is usually from July to October every year, after the Dragon Boat Festival. In other words, the leaves used to make Zongzi that year are from the previous year.

Due to the influence of geography, storage, transportation and other factors, there is no way to ensure that the color of zongzi leaves remains unchanged for a long time.

The color of truly natural rice dumplings leaves should be natural yellow-green or dark green with a slight yellow tint, rather than an overly bright emerald green.

If the green is too bright or even shiny, it may be a suspect of "returning to green"! Be wary of those "photo-cheating" greens!

Take a smell, and smell the fresh rice dumplings leaves with a refreshing plant fragrance . If there is a pungent odor or the smell of chemicals , it is chemical technology, so refuse it decisively!

Boil it and you can test whether the rice dumplings leaves are made of real ingredients. They can withstand the test of high temperature and remain tough and elastic after boiling, with natural color.

Put the zong leaves into boiling water and cook for a while. If the water changes color or there is foam of different colors , it is a signal that it is unqualified! Happy Dragon Boat Festival The Dragon Boat Festival is coming, and the fragrance of zongzi is overflowing, but during this traditional festival, let us also work together to protect the safety of our tongues.

Although the green and attractive color of the re-greened rice dumplings leaves may conceal the hidden dangers of chemical agents. They seem to be disguised on the holiday table, and there are unknown secrets behind their beauty.

In this warm and reunion moment, let us be more careful and less worried, pay attention when choosing ingredients, let love and health go hand in hand, and spend a truly safe and green Dragon Boat Festival together.