Sempio’s JIN GANJANG vs YANGJO GANJANG
In the SEMPIO lineup, YANGJO GANJANG is the clear winner compared to their JIN GANJANG.
What is the difference between JIN GANJANG and YANGJO GANJANG? The following takes specific examples from Korea’s best-selling soy sauce company- and the most widely available brand in grocers’ outside of Korea: SEMPIO.
Sempio’s JIN GANJANG is considered a cheap blended cooking soy sauce that you can buy at their lowest price point. Keep in mind that this is in line with the inferior quality. It is the most processed and basically a chemical mashup of epic proportions. “Blended” or “Mixed” soy sauces are a nicer way of referring to these synthetic formulations. YANGJO GANJANG is made from defatted soy meal but does go through a natural brewing process of 6 months. Read the full article about JIN GANJANG here.
The traditional method of making soy sauce is to ferment whole soybeans, then brining using natural sea salt for months to many years. This creates bacteria and mold which is key to rich fermentation. You know how healthy fermented foods are, right? The strained juice of what becomes bean paste is the delicious elixir that is integral to many Asian recipes.
A simplistic flowchart outlining commercial processing practices of Sempio’s Korean JIN and YANGJO Soy Sauces. Just so you get the general idea.
Sempio’s JIN GANJANG takes soy sauce that is completely chemically produced and mixes it with a bit of brewed sauce. They take soybeans and boil them in hydrochloric acid- it is not fermented at all. Rinse off the acid, add artificial flavourings and colour to make it look and taste like soy sauce and they’re ready for purchase within days of production (rather than months). It is not allowed to sell fully chemical soy sauces and so they mix in a percentage of YANGJO soy sauce and call it a day. Sempio’s JIN GANJANG S has 93% acid hydrolyzed (chemical) soy sauce with only 7% brewed soy sauce in it.
YANGJO means “brewed” in reference to the fact they do go through some fermentation. This in itself reassures the consumer that they are getting a “natural” soy sauce that has gone through a “brewing” process. Unfortunately, that is not the whole story.
Brewed with wheat for 6 months. The better choice compared to Sempio’s JIN GANJANG.
YANGJO GANJANG is indeed fermented for 6 months. However, for full disclosure, it must be stated that it is far from being the best choice. On the other hand, it is sometimes difficult to find a wide variety of products outside of Korea. So if you can only find Sempio’s JIN GANJANG and YANGJO GANJANG, then yes. YANGJO GANJANG is the better option. Read the full write-up on YANGJO GANJANG here.
All About Food: The Manufacturing of Our Food is Not Pretty || LA Times
The reason YANGJO soy sauce is not optimal is that the main ingredient is defatted soybean or skim soybean. Soybean oil is one of the most popular cooking oils in the world. Its oils are extracted via chemical processing using hexane. Hexane is a component of gasoline. After that is washed off, and the oils go on to become soybean oil, the scraps are sold off to other buyers. In this case, soy sauce companies.
The issue is that when they rinse off the hexane, inevitably, there are traces leftover. Currently, the European Union has set a limit on how much residue is allowed to be left at 10 ppm (parts per million). A 2010 study by Cornucopia (Non-profit consumer education and watchdog organization) found concentrations as high as 21 ppm. However, there is no set limit on residue levels in defatted soy in the US because there are no conclusive tests that verify any long-term ill effects (yet). It’s only been confirmed to be dangerous when inhaled- so, there we are.
To further paranoia, defatted soybean meal is routinely used in many common food items: Veggie burgers, granola bars, cereal, pasta, salad dressing, frozen desserts and soy infant formula.
(insert sad face emoticon)
The conclusion then is that if your only choices are Sempio JIN GANJANG (S/ Gold S/ Gold F3) or Sempio YANGJO GANJANG (501/701), then YANGJO GANJANG is the clear winner. Sempio’s YANGJO GANJANG is the #1 selling soy sauce of choice in Korea.
From there, you have a choice in YANGJO GANJANG 501 and YANGJO GANJANG 701. They both contain defatted soy meal in addition to flavouring agents, preservatives and sugar additives. The difference is in the TN value. TN stands for Total Nitrogen which is the quality score for soy sauces. Keep in mind the range is only 1% - 1.8%. Anything above 1.3% is above average and from 1.5% is considered a premium product.
Nitrogen levels represent the amount of protein present in soy sauce. This is the industry-wide standard in determining quality. The higher number is supposed to be a better product and is priced accordingly.
Sempio’s YANGJO GANJANG 501 has a TN value of 1.5% and YANGJO GANJANG 701 is at 1.7%. That accounts for the slightly higher price tag of the 701 in these otherwise similarly “naturally brewed” sauces.
Although YANGJO GANJANG is a clear winner in comparison to JIN GANJANG in the Sempio family of products, it is worth noting it’s not the best. Because of its use of defatted soy meal rather than whole soybeans, I feel it may give you a false complacency. Also, it uses wheat to speed up the rate of fermentation which is not how authentic Korean soy sauces are made. There are also sugar additives and preservatives present.
The addition of wheat is a Japanese method of commercially producing soy sauce. To be honest, this is how most soy sauces in Korea are made today because the production technique just makes such good business sense. Quick and efficient processing ultimately translates to a friendly price point at the grocery store- which consumers respond well to as well.
That said YANGJO GANJANG is also known as Ilbon (Japanese) soy sauce or Whe (Japanese) soy sauce for older Korean generations. This means that a Japanese soy sauce can be a substitute for YANGJO soy sauce.
Sometimes easier to find at most major grocery stores. This has added wheat and uses a quick fermenting processing method but at least there are no chemical soy sauces blended in here. A good substitute for YANGJO soy sauce if you can’t find it. Be aware that it most likely uses defatted soybean - even though the label may only state “soybeans” in the ingredient list.
Unfortunately, Japanese soy sauces with English labels do not specify whether they use whole or defatted soybeans. But since most use defatted soy, it’s would be safe to assume it in an economical product. Even if the ingredient list says “soybeans”, they may actually mean “defatted soybeans”. Japanese soy sauces that use whole soybeans will prominently say so on the bottle- in Japanese. It is called MARUDAIZU (Whole Soybean) Soy Sauce.
The real deal “naturally brewed” with wheat, but with whole soybeans. English labels will just state“soybeans” whether they are whole or defatted.
Basically with Sempio, choose YANGJO Soy Sauce over JIN Soy Sauce. And if there is no Korean brand soy sauce, Japanese soy sauce will work just fine. Because anything is better than SEMPIO JIN GANJANG’s chemical monstrosity of a soy sauce.
Further Reading you may be Interested in:
Should we worry about soya in our food? || The Guardian (article written in 2006 but still sadly relevant today)
Soyfood Secret || Sarah Mosko PhD (Boogie Green- Living Sustainably and Loving It)
At the end of the day, we can’t deny we live in a world where chemically processed foods are a reality. But perhaps we can make small changes that lead to big changes that one day let us nourish our bodies without harming ourselves or the planet. One can dream, right?
