What is sodium citrate as a food additive

Do you know what kind of food additive sodium citrate is? In fact, sodium citrate as an additive is widely used in food, medicine, detergent and so on. As a food additive, it is mainly used as a buffering agent, chelating agent, nutritional supplement, emulsifier, flavouring agent and stabilizer. It is used in biscuits, beverages, ice cream, dairy products, canned food, etc. to improve the flavour of food and enhance the quality of products.

Sodium citrate is the most important citrate at present, mainly produced by fermentation of starchy substances to produce citric acid, and then neutralised with alkali substances to produce, has a variety of unique excellent properties.

1. Sodium citrate is safe and non-toxic. Since the raw material for the preparation of sodium citrate is basically derived from grain, it is absolutely safe and reliable and poses no risk to human health. There are no restrictions on its daily intake by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization, and it can be considered as drug-free.

2. Sodium citrate is biodegradable. When sodium citrate is diluted in nature with large amounts of water, it is partially transformed into citric acid, and the two coexist in the same system. Citric acid is easily biodegraded in water by oxygen, heat, light, bacteria and microorganisms. The decomposition pathway is generally through aconitic acid, itaconic acid and citric anhydride, which are converted to carbon dioxide and water.

3. Sodium citrate has metal ion complexing ability. Sodium citrate has good complexing ability for metal ions such as calcium ions and magnesium ions, and also for other metal ions such as iron ions.

4. Sodium citrate has excellent solubility and the solubility increases with the increase of water temperature.

5. Sodium citrate has good pH adjustment and buffering properties. Sodium citrate is a weak acid and strong alkali salt, which can be used with citric acid to form a strong pH buffer, so it has an important use in some occasions where a wide range of pH change is not suitable. In addition, sodium citrate also has excellent retarding and stabilising properties.

Nowadays, many food products have food additives, so what is a food additive in the end? In fact, food additives are synthetic or natural substances that are added to food to improve the colour, flavour and taste of the food, as well as for preservative and processing purposes.