Baked gluten is obviously not made of meat. Why does it taste like meat?

In the last year or two, there have been many stalls selling roasted gluten on the streets of the provincial capital. Many people will have such questions when they feast. Baked gluten is obviously vegetarian, why does it have a strong meat flavor at the entrance? The reporter recently learned that this is actually because vendors add meat flavor to baked gluten.

A string of gluten for barbecue, baked on charcoal fire, and then brushed with special sauce, smells like meat far away ... Yesterday, at a stall near Wenhua East Road, the stall owner was baking a string of gluten, 1 yuan, surrounded by several young people. A female consumer said that she likes to eat roasted gluten, because eating vegetarian food will not make her fat, and it also tastes like meat.

The stall owner said that baked gluten, a special snack, is a foreign place and has sprung up in Jinan in recent years. "Although it is vegetarian, it tastes fleshy, which can especially arouse people's appetite. Many people, especially young people and students, like it. " The reporter learned that unlike the traditional roasted gluten, the roasted gluten stalls on the streets of the provincial capital can now make beef, chicken, pork and other flavors.

Recently, the reporter saw in a comprehensive wholesale market in the east of the provincial capital that many businesses are selling this kind of meat flavor, including powder, paste and liquid. According to the content and purity, the price is not the same, ranging from six or seven yuan to dozens of yuan. Merchants say that, for example, a 500g package of meat flavor essence sold in 50 yuan only needs a little flavor every time, even if it is used every day, it can last for more than a month.

Mr. Liu, a factory worker who sells food additives in Hebei, told reporters that the meat flavor essence is mainly composed of various sulfur-containing compounds, and some nuts and oils are added appropriately, which produces a pure and authentic flavor than real meat, but it actually does not contain meat essence, which is not only nutritious, but also harmful to human health.