PRECAUTION: Dried Black mushrooms from China may contain excessive amount of Sulfide.
Sulfide has potential to cause allergy, mostly asthmatic. 10% of asthma cases are cause by allergy to sulfides. It is a preservative, but strictly regulated.
The dried black mushrooms are usually soaked in water to soften them before cooking. They are to be drained off the soaking water. It has been found that Mushrooms from China contain carbon disulfide in them. Not sure what this chemical does if consumed and the amount of concern.
Note that a quick Google check will find that carbon disulfide is a pesticide/fungicide with acceptable/legal residue levels defined for fresh/dried foods.
Anyway, the safest option is to dump the soaking liquid and not use it in the cooking process. China's regulations are questionable. This message is to warn you against using the water you soaked your mushrooms in.
Most of the mushrooms on the market are from China, and are contaminated with chemicals (I think it is carbon disulfide, or disulfide, (correct me if I am wrong) which are soluble in water.
You must discard the water that you soaked the dried mushrooms in.
According to Mr. L.W. Chan of the Health Department(USA), most mushrooms were smuggled into the country from China. The recent opening of traffic between China and Taiwan made it difficult for the government to control these illegal activities.
A suggestion is to use Taiwanese mushrooms or Japanese Shiitake Mushrooms.
It is advisable to soak them in water before cooking and the water used in soaking the mushrooms must be thrown away.
Mr. Chan continued to say that it is customary and a common practice for people to cook the mushrooms with the water saved from soaking. This habit should stop, because most fertilizers used in farming were water soluble.
No comments:
Post a Comment