Is eating sour bamboo shoots harmful?

Sour bamboo shoots, also known as sour salted bamboo shoots or chili bamboo shoots, is a favorite dish. However, if you do not know how to prepare, use it in the wrong way or consume too much, this dish can be harmful to health.

It is important to check whether soaked bamboo shoots contain preservatives such as yellow or sulfur. Currently, many restaurants use sour bamboo shoots or chili bamboo shoots with bright yellow color. This is a type of bamboo shoots that you should limit eating, because it is likely that they have been impregnated with yellow chemicals to color. Gold umbrella is banned in food processing, only allowed to be used in industry.

Chemical soaked bamboo shoots often look beautiful, smooth shells, bamboo shoots are evenly tagged and when touched, it feels like sticking hands. The color of this bamboo shoots is usually dark yellow or white, difficult to get moldy and brittle when broken with hands. In contrast, natural sour bamboo shoots are pale yellow, sometimes slightly dark due to salt soaked, often chewy and not brittle.

Fresh bamboo shoots contain very high cyanide content. When eating, under the effects of enzymes in the gastrointestinal tract, cyanide can be converted into cyanhydric acid (HCN), a substance that can cause poisoning. Before soaking, bamboo shoots are often boiled to reduce toxins. In the process of soaking, bamboo shoots from pungent smell to sour smell, and cyanide levels also decrease significantly. In addition, when processing sour bamboo shoots into dishes, toxins continue to be reduced.

However, many families use bamboo shoots in the wrong way, eating when bamboo shoots have not been soaked in salt or not enough acidity, making the amount of cyanide still high, easily leading to poisoning. Eating too much spicy and sour salted chili can also cause stomach pain, heat and pimples. To ensure safety, you should choose and process bamboo shoots properly, or buy bamboo shoots from reputable facilities, with clear origin to be assured to use.