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Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.

Soy Sauce Isn't Made from Soy Beans? It's Human Hair?

By , About.com Guide   July 27, 2010

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The news services sometimes include unusual stories that relate to 'chemistry'. For example, there's this news report about the use of potentially carcinogenic soy sauce made using human hair instead of soy beans. I learned that the amino acids in human hair can be used to make a condiment with a flavor similar to that of the usual soy variety. Making soy sauce with hair apparently has been in practice since World War II. The cancer-causing chemicals don't derive from the human hair, but rather from the chemicals used to process hair to make it into food. The sauce tends to be used more for Chinese food than Japanese food. I had been craving Chinese food, but I may go for pizza instead now. Ick.
Chirality of Amino Acids | Hair Color Chemistry

Comments

July 27, 2010 at 12:08 pm
(1) raghavendra says:

thanks for giving this message regarding soya sauce made of human hair, but do you have any coffee chemistry or reaction when subjected to heat.( am talking about the coffee beans when roasted and broken to extracted with hot water and then sprayed).

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