Advantages Of Ascorbic Acid In Food

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Title :
The use of Ascorbic Acid as a preservative in food production

Introduction:
Ascorbic acid (C6H8O6), often identified as vitamin C, is an organic compound that can be found in nature. It is a fraction or an isolate of vitamin C, which has antioxidant properties and is a chemical that can both be synthetically and naturally made.

Problem:
Before the founding of food additives, food will easily become matured and rotten over time, especially when it is put in normal circumstances. This process of decaying would lead to a change in its texture, odour, colour, and flavour, which would eventually become harmful to the human body once eaten. People who are unaware of these rotten foods would therefore suffer from various diseases or sicknesses …show more content…

It can also be synthetically made. It normally appears in its white solid state. Usually, it is applied to food as a powder form, or tablets for direct intake. It can also be dissolved into water as a gently acidic solution.

Ascorbic acid can be used as a preservative in foods to stop them from ripening as fast as it should have been, as an antioxidant, as a colour stabilizer, and to increase the quality of the product (food). Nowadays, it is widely used in food industry purposes, serving as an addition in food processing.

As a preservative and antioxidant:
- Commonly added to beverages and fruit juices, helping restore the nutritional values that are lost during the food processing and simultaneously contributing to the appearance of the food
- Holds back the oxidization process and the browning qualities of fruits or foods – reduces oxygen and delays metal ions, therefore preventing them to react with the phenols, which normally converts into quinones, which cause the browning of …show more content…

Ascorbic acid has been classified as safe for use by the “Center for Science in the Public Interest”. Also, the “Food and Drug Administration” had given it a specification as “generally recognized as safe”.

Despite for its safety classification, an over intake or deficiency of ascorbic acid can also lead to negative impacts towards the body. There is a certain maximum amount of ascorbic acid that you can take per day. According to the “National Institutes of Health”, the maximum intake of ascorbic acid per day for an average adult man is 90 mg and for an average adult woman is 75mg.

An overdose of ascorbic acid can result in:
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Stomach aches
- Head aches
- Chest pains
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