Acidity regulator and its application

Acidity regulator, also known as sour agent or acidifying agent. It is a food additive that gives sour flavor to make product standardization. In addition, sour agent  in food processing is also often used as components of Bulking agents, color fixatives, antioxidants and preservatives. Sour agents make you feel snappy, stomachic and helps dissolve cellulose, calcium, phosphorus and other substances. It promotes the digestion and absorption of nutrients, as well as antiseptic and antibacterial.

The sour of sour agent is affected by:

Temperature  Sour will strengthen as the temperature increases, but compared with bitter and sweet, sour affected least by temperature.

Hydrogen Ion Concentration  Whether strong or weak of a sour taste has something to do with the hydrogen ion concentration.

Total Acidity And Buffer

The Nature Of The Anion

Sour Mixed With Other Tastes

Common used sour agents:

1. Citric Acid: Citric acid do well in anti-corrosion, especially bacteria reproduce. It has strong ability to chelate metal ions. It can be used as antioxidants to delay the oxidative rancidity of oils, at the same time it can also be used as stabilizers for pigments to prevent discoloration of fruit and vegetable. Paired buffer solution with sodium citrate and potassium citrate can improve the quality of ice cream, or the cheese is easier to shape and cut. Citric acid has a soft and snappy flavor, and the acid sense is the highest in mouth.

2. Lactic acid: Transparent colorless or pale yellow syrup liquid, odorless or have a slight acidity, and it can be mixed with water, alcohol, glycerine arbitrary. Generally 80% ~ 90% lactic acid contains 10% ~ 10% lactic acid anhydride. It is often used in fermented food, beverage, preparation of wine, jam, canned and candy, etc.

3. Tartaric acid: White crystalline powder, odourless, easy to dissolve in water and slightly hygroscopic. Grapes contain a lot of tartaric acid. It is used in the production of aromatic beverage and syrup, citrus fruit, jam, cans, candy, grape juice and products.

What you should pay attention to:

The anion not only affect the flavor of the sour agent, but also affect the flavor of food.

Citric acid has certain stimulation, can cause the digestive system disease. We should strictly pay attention to the safety when using it.

Different kind of acid will produce different taste, such as citric acid, ascorbic acid and glucose acid produce the sour taste with cool and refreshing feeling, but sour disappear fast. Phosphoric acid and tartaric acid is weaker, and their acidity was disappear quickly. Malic acid with a bitter taste, and the acid produce and disappear is slowly. Fumaric acid has a strong astringency and the sour can be last for a long time.

Article source: http://okfoodadd.blogspot.hk/2015/08/what-is-thickeners.html.

What is the thickener?

Nowadays, there are lots of added thickener in foods, such as yogurt, ice cream, jelly, etc. What exactly is a thickening agent? Thickeners that is added to food is natural or synthetic ?

What is a thickening agent used in food?

Thickeners is also called gelling agents. It increases material viscosity and makes the material keep stable hover state, opaque State or gel formation. Food thickener is a food additive that is mainly used to improve and increase consistency of food, keep the color, aroma, taste and stability of flow food or gel food, improve physical properties of food, and lubricates the food.

In the modern food industry, processed food can not exist without food additives. Of course,  as long as the added additives meet the requirements and the use of the dose is not exceeded, then toxic and harmful situation will not be exist. Thickening agent is allowed to add to grain and grain products, dairy products, fat, oil, frozen drinks, fruit products, candy, starch products, cake, meat and meat products, aquatic products, syrup, condiments, beverage, wine, etc. The most commonly used in beverage production thickeners are alginate propylene glycol, carrageenan, xanthan gum, pectin, guar guar gum, locust bean gum, etc, and starch, modified starch, gelatin and sodium alginate, jelly, ice cream in common have sodium alginate, carrageenan and xanthan gum are commonly used  in meat products.

What is the role of adding thickener in food?

Thickeners can improve food viscosity and make raw materials more easily extruded from the container or better adhesion in food. The silky texture makes it popular in food industry. Such as cellulose thickener used in ice cream can increase its degree of swelling and improve the melting speed, it has adhesive function in the processing of  fish, meat and isopiestic mold food. Some good  hydrophilic thickening agent can maintain the moisture as well as enhance or improve the food taste when added to meat products, bread, cakes, noodles and other foods. Add the thickening agent to jelly, syrup, candy, artificial seasoning seafood and other products can enhance gelation. In short, the purpose of adding food thickener can be summarized as: thickening, stability, gel, water retention, etc.

Is food thickener safe?

In fact, the use of food thickeners are  often more complex. They themselves are non-toxic or harmless, but easily to raise blood sugar, and may even lead to severe blood sugar response. Sugar free yogurt causes some consumers blood sugar increase.  It is likely to be caused by the thickening agent, rather than the inherent lactose ingredients in milk. Because the natural lactose does not cause rapid increase in blood sugar. Therefore, we must read the ingredients list carefully before the purchase of sugar free products, and beware of the impact of the thickening agent on blood sugar.

Source: http://okfoodadd.blogspot.hk/2015/08/why-xanthan-gum-is-common-in-life.html.

Why Xanthan Gum Is Common In Life?

Yesterday, I went to a party of my friends. During the party, I drank a cup of juice, but different from the common juice, It tasted a little like soup, but delicious as well. Then, I turned to the label of the juice, a substance called xanthan gum inside. I‘m used to read the labels on many kinds of products, and xanthan gum one of the most popular ingredients used in food products, such as in salad dressings, sauces, ice cream,flour, cakes, etc. It is also a common ingredient in other products such as toothpaste and many pharmaceutical medicines.

Things you need to know

Xanthan Gum is made from corn and called a polysaccharide. A bacteria called Xanthomonas campestris is added and fermentation takes place. Precipitated from the solution using isopropyl alcohol, dried, and milled into a powder, thus xanthan gum can be added to food and beverages easily.

Use of Xanthan Gum

Xanthan gum is an emulsifier. It is used in low-fat salad dressings to stabilize and form an emulsion in place of fats and oils, it helps ingredients blend more effectively actually.

Xanthan gum can be quickly dissolved in the water. It has a good solubility in water, even it can be dissolved in the cold water. As we know itself has excellent hydrophilic. If add the water directly without sufficient mixture , this may leads to external swelling into micelles and prevents moisture from entering the inside, affecting the function in the end. When combined with water,  xanthan gum binds and forms a highly viscous gel. 

Xanthan gum solutions has the characteristics of high viscosity and low concentration(1% aqueous solution viscosity equivalent to 100 times of gelatin), as a result, it is a highly efficient thickener. Foods like  yogurt, whipped cream, salad dressing benefit from the addition of xanthan gum to create thickness and improve the appearance and texture.

The soft and smoother mouth feel always accompanies you whenever you enjoy your coffee, your ice creams, your pastry, etc.

Is Xanthan Gum safe?

Xanthan gum may be derived from a variety of sources such as corn, wheat, or soy. If you are allergic to things like one of them, you need to to ascertain the source and avoid using xanthan gum. It is considered safe by the FDA and safe for use. If you think xanthan gum is an industrial processed product and decide to give up it, it may not be an easy thing, for xanthan gum is a common additive in foods, lots of labels of gluten free baking mixes and packaged gluten free products contains xanthan gum.

Article Source: http://okdoodadd.blogspot.hk/2015/08/normal-0-7.html.

Citric Acid Has a Wide Range of Applications

What is Citric Acid?

A number of organic acids have been applied in our daily lives. But, the one that is used most frequently is citric acid. According to Wikipedia, citric acid is a weak organic acid with the formula C6H8O7. It is a natural preservative which is present in citrus fruits. It is also used to add an acidic or sour taste to foods and drinks. In biochemistry, the conjugate base of citric acid, citrate, is important as an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, which occurs in the metabolism of all aerobic organisms. 

Applications of Citric Acid

Food grade citric acid that can be used in a wide range of applications. It may not difficult to find that this product is often used as a food addictive. Many brands making beverages and foods use citric acid. The dominant use of citric acid is as a flavoring and preservative in these products, also it is a perfect ingredient for some candies. The labels on the soft drinks or candies you purchase shows citric acid as an ingredient, and that explains why they taste sour. For citric acid well known attribute is its sour taste. It is popular in many products and people like the flavor.

Citric acid as an emulsifying agent can be added to ice cream to keep fats from separating. It is also common to use citric acid in the manufacturing procedure of cheese. The quality that makes this organic acid a perfect ingredient for cheese is its ability to clot milk quickly. Some winemakers add citric acid to most of their wines for it helps to add fruitiness to the wine's flavors.

Citric acid as additive to prevent bacteria growth, you can add the citric acid directly to add the shelf life of your fruits or vegetables. Citric Acid is an important and popular flavoring and preserving agent, it can be seen in the kitchen and your dinner table.

Citric acid as a skin care ingredient has the antioxidant properties, preventing formation of wrinkles. As it keeps the skin moisturized by keeping water bound to the skin and prevents drying of skin. Many Cosmetics use this as an component to satisfy consumers needs.

Is Citric Acid Harmful?

Citric acid is found in primarily in citrus fruits like oranges and lemons. Fruits which contain citric acid are known to be beneficial to human health. Food additives and safety is an issue which people focus all the way. When it comes to citric acid, different opinions may come out. Citric acid is not a harmful chemical, in fact, natural in all body applications. It poses no harm to the environment and very few people have any allergies to it.