Half a bottle is thrown away, and half a bottle is thrown away for a year! Why is the design of oyster sauce not improved?

Expert of this article: Li Yilan, PhD in Chemistry, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

People who cook frequently know that when getting oyster sauce, if you don’t use enough force, it won’t come out, but if you use too much force, a big lump will appear.

Therefore, the measurement unit of oyster sauce is also so unique: a flick.

Over the years, the design of oyster sauce has never changed.

Why is it so difficult to pour out the oyster sauce in the bottle? Why can't the design be more user-friendly? After reading this, I realized that the designer had good intentions.

Why is oyster sauce so difficult to pour?

"Oyster sauce" is also known as "oyster oil". Most of the oyster sauces bought on the market are made by peeling oysters raw, washing the oyster meat and steaming it, filtering out the oyster meat, and using the boiled broth as the stock liquid of oyster sauce. Various seasonings and food additives are then added to adjust the color, thicken the texture, and enhance the flavor to finally form oyster sauce.

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In order to avoid stratification and clumping of oyster sauce, starch, food-grade sodium carboxymethyl cellulose and xanthan gum are usually added for thickening to ensure that the finished oyster sauce is thick and evenly distributed. At the same time, the content of free-flowing water in the oyster sauce with the addition of thickeners is reduced, which effectively extends the shelf life of the oyster sauce.

Therefore, the final viscous oyster sauce has extremely low fluidity, making it difficult to pour out when we use it.

Why is oyster sauce bottled in glass?

Most of the oyster sauces on the market for household use are packaged in bulky, heavy glass bottles with narrow necks, rather than plastic or other materials that are easier to squeeze. The reason for this can be traced back to the composition of oyster sauce.

It is not difficult to find in the ingredient list of oyster sauce that most oyster sauces contain the organic acid "citric acid", which has certain antioxidant properties and can therefore effectively extend the shelf life of oyster sauce.

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But at the same time, citric acid, as a strong polybasic acid, has a certain corrosiveness, and the main component of glass is silicate, mainly silicon dioxide. Except for interacting with hydrofluoric acid, general acids will not react chemically with it. Therefore, glass has good corrosion resistance, thus avoiding the production of harmful substances that affect human health.

At the same time, the ingredients in oyster sauce are complex. During transportation, if it is exposed to direct sunlight for a long time, the ingredients will easily decompose, affecting the taste of the oyster sauce.

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Glass bottles have good sealing properties, are colorless and transparent, odorless, stable in nature, and are not easy to interact with substances in oyster sauce. They can be recycled repeatedly and have low cost. Therefore, most oyster sauces are packaged in glass bottles.

Why not modify the oyster sauce bottle?

Oyster sauce is usually packaged in hot cans and is usually sterilized together with the packaging before sale. The conditions are usually to react at a temperature above 60°C for at least half an hour.

The high temperature resistance and good stability of glass also ensure the smooth and safe progress of the entire process from production to sales of oyster sauce.

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At the same time, the slender glass mouth is designed to block the contact between oyster sauce and air as much as possible, preventing the contamination of bacteria in the air from affecting the quality of oyster sauce every time it is used. As for plastic and other materials, they lack corrosion resistance and safety under high temperature.

At the same time, compared with squeeze bottle caps, the ordinary bottle caps currently used are cheaper, so there will be basically no improvement in the packaging of oyster sauce.

What should I do if the oyster sauce cannot be shaken out?

When we use it, there are many tricks to avoid the phenomenon of not being able to squeeze out oyster sauce or squeezing out too much and causing waste.

1. Shake gently

When pouring oyster sauce, you can gently shake the bottle to ensure that some oyster sauce is thrown into the bottle mouth, but make sure that the oyster sauce does not fill the bottleneck of the glass. This way, by slightly tilting the bottle, the oyster sauce can be slowly poured out in the gap.

At the same time, the glass bottle should be rotated after pouring to ensure that the oyster sauce at the bottle mouth flows back into the bottle to avoid waste.

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2. Install the extrusion pump head

You can make your own or purchase a commercial squeezing pump head or liquid extractor at home to replace the original oyster sauce seal. This way, you can use the right amount of oyster sauce by squeezing, and it is easy to operate.

However, please note that if the oyster sauce is not airtight, it will easily deteriorate, so it is best to store the oyster sauce in the refrigerator.

3. Reduce the viscosity of oyster sauce

Before use, apply a hot towel to the bottle of oyster sauce. The higher temperature will increase the fluidity of the oyster sauce, making it easier to pour.

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