Any Dopers with inside commercial food processing knowledge? I’m trying to understand to what extent citric acid is used in food processing and not listed on food labels.
As an example, every recipe I find online for canning fruits or vegetables says to use citric acid. Yet many canned fruits and vegetables at the store don’t list citric acid as an ingredient, but some do. Do commercial canneries have some other process, such as extra-high temperatures, that eliminates the need for citric acid? I’ve also heard it’s used to preserve those peeled baby carrots, but don’t see it on the label for the ones in the store.
I realize the stuff is ubiquitous and I’m not trying to start rumors that it’s poison. Something has been bothering my stomach, though, and after avoiding it for a week or so I am feeling better.
Possibly, in commercial canning, I don’t know? But it would have to be a very small amount. It’s very sour, if it were used in pickles it might be exempt, but I am just guessing.
I’m having a bit of cognmitive dissonance here because just about every canning recipe I’ve ever seen online generally uses acetic acid (vinegar) for preserving. Sure some might use citrus (citric acid) instead of vinegar, but the majority I’ve seen use acetic acid and salt?
Citric Acid, doesn’t technically preserve the baby carrots, it acts as an antioxident to protect the coloring and appearance. It might preserve freshness to a certain degree, but it doesn’t preserve the carrot. I think a carrot also has a certain amount of citric acid occuring naturally.
Got no idea, but it’s entirely natural and occurs naturally in varying degreees in most fruits and some vegetables.
IAMNAD, either… so I can’t advise you as to that.
Vitamin C is ascorbic acid. Citric acid is a different substance. Citric acid can be in vitamins or foods as a preservative or tartness agent.
FWIW, I have also found myself sensitive to Citric acid, and I rarely get sick since I decided to stay away from it. For me, the symptoms are asthma/respiratory and nasal congestion/drainage, and laryngeal spasm.
I looked back at what I searched on, and actually I had been searching things like “canned pears citric acid” and “canned corn citric acid.” This does bring up a lot of home canning recipes using citric acid, but you’re right that there are plenty of recipes online for home canning without it.
pudytat72, there is a bunch of stuff online about how commercial citric acid is created from aspergillus niger, a common allergenic mold. If you are more sensitive to it as an additive and less when it naturally occurs in fruits, you might consider that, considering your respiratory symptoms. Aspergillus niger is an allergy they can test for.
Although I understand it occurs naturally in a lot of stuff, with food intolerances, like lactose intolerance, sometimes a little is not a problem, but a lot is a problem. I know I haven’t eliminated it completely from my diet. That would be really, really hard so I hope it doesn’t come to that.
I think the citric acid in canning use is a color fixative, and a crisp keeper, and crunch enhancer (I think it might act with calcium in some way, to reinforce the cell walls of the vegetable), an antioxidant, and “the Frischmacher!” (Mentos).
Thanks for informing me on ascorbic acid. I just thought they were chemically related or somehow the same… na, I’ve also seen Michael Chiarello use Vitamin C tablets crushed up as a color fixer and antioxidant in certain vegetable preperations.