Hello everyone, I am Food Xiaobai (brother of Food Xiaoyan)
From today onwards, this online "R&D knows or not" column, will sort out some technical questions and answers from time to time for the reference of R & D personnel.
Due to the limited level of knowledge (relatively low), it is necessary for everyone to carefully identify, correct the wrong answer, or for the incomplete answer, leave a message to put forward your opinion, thank you!
Image credit: pixabay
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > today's topic</h1>
Question 1:
It is often seen that citric acid and sodium citrate are added together in beverage ingredients, what is the role?
Reply:
Citric acid is a kind of acid, sour taste, mainly used to regulate food taste (PH value), sodium citrate is salty, weak alkaline. The two combine to form a citric acid-sodium citrate buffer system, which can stabilize the pH of the solution in a certain range, play a role in modifying the sour taste of citric acid, making the sour taste soft and non-irritating and long-lasting balance.
Most single use of citric acid is also possible, but supplementing with a little sodium citrate (sodium salt) is to make citric acid more stable, reduce the stimulation of citric acid on taste buds in the product, and make the product taste more natural, uniform and smooth.
Question 2:
How to use? Is there a standard ratio for citric acid and sodium citrate?
I think there is no fixed ratio, because the success of making a beverage is based on the premise of taste, so we have to constantly test the ratio of sweet and sour when developing products, and finally find a suitable sweet-sour ratio. But at the same time, making drinks also involves a stability problem, the need for sodium citrate to mediate the PH value of the drink, because many colloids are not very acid-resistant, and some products have low protein isoelectric points, so sodium citrate is needed to regulate.
Some people also believe that the pH value of the product is mainly dependent on sodium bicarbonate, but sodium citrate can be relied on when fine-tuning. As for getting the expected PH value, it is actually very simple. The first is to distinguish the relationship between total acid and PH value. Under the condition of a certain acidity, it can be titrated by the content of sodium citrate, display its value with a PH meter, stop titration when the demand value is reached, evaluate the taste of the system, if it can be, it means that the formula is feasible, if there is an alkaline taste, it means that the acidity is not enough, and it is necessary to increase the acidity agent. Adjust this. In the solution system, the difference between small samples and large samples is not large, provided that the water quality is consistent.
In addition, I will give you a few ratios mentioned by netizens for everyone to experiment. For example, the ratio of citric acid to sodium citrate is 1:2, or 3:1, or 4:1, or 5:1. A reference table of pH values of citric acid and sodium citrate buffer is attached.
Table 1 PH values of citric acid and sodium citrate buffers
Further reading:
Buffer is a solution that resists pH change when a small amount of acid or base is added. The combination of weak acids and their salts together gives a buffering effect. The buffer systems commonly used in biochemical laboratories mainly include phosphoric acid, citric acid, carbonic acid, acetic acid and other systems. The food industry generally uses buffer solutions to adjust the pH of food, mainly to avoid adverse effects on food quality caused by pH changes during processing, transportation and storage.
Reminder: The content of the article is for learning and communication, and is for reference only! If there is any impropriety, welcome to leave a message to correct and communicate.
If the article involves infringement or does not want to be published on my platform, please contact us.