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
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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
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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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Assignment #3 Two vitamins that I do not meet the guidelines for daily consumption from the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans are vitamins A and D, which are both fat-soluble vitamins. The primary function of vitamin A is maintaining the function of the cells that line the lungs, stomach, urinary tract and bladder, intestines, vagina, vision, skin and immune function. Having a low intake of vitamin A could increase my risk of vision problems such as age related macular degeneration due an inadequate amount of carotenoids such as lutein, zeaxanthin, and beta-carotenes. The recommended amount for me according the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) for Vitamin A-RAE is 700 mcg and for my weekly average I consumed 279.2. If this vitamin is taken in excess it can have harmful effects such as liver toxicity and birth defects.
Winnable Battle- Safe Food Objectives: Approximately 1 of 6 people in America get sick from eating contaminated food. Some people recover and few others may suffer from complication such as kidney failure, miscarriage or brain and nerve damage (10 Colorado winnable battles). In Colorado, there is at least 41% of foodborne outbreaks report and investigation each year. This is an enormous number that underscores the need for vigilance and highlights the importance of the food safety programs to identify foodborne illnesses (10 Colorado winnable battles).
If not used as prescribed, there is a significantly increased risk of harm. The symptoms of overdose from fentanyl include slow and problematic breathing, vomiting and nausea, a rise in blood pressure and
This act was passed in 1906 in America. This act was presented in this book, but before it was passed. Before the act was passed many types meat, which people ate was infected with all these kind of disease. Many dead animals got inside the elements and the workers didn’t care and they carried on with their jobs. This did lead to many deaths as it also features in the book that someone does end up dying due to the food poising.
They cause slurred speech, confusion, outbursts of anger and vomiting
Food is the sustaining life force that drives the human race forwards from day to day. As daily consumers of food products, it is automatically expected that the producers of such important products aim to produce goods that will help the consumer and attribute to their health. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. At the turn of the twentieth century, food sanitation in factories was at an all time low. Adding to this issue were the harsh conditions in which the workers were forced to work in.
The first food adulteration was brought to the attention of the people during the Spanish American War of 1898. The press reported that there were large amounts of rotten meat that was being shipped to the American troops with the smell of boracic acid, causing many soldiers to get sick and disable the soldiers from fighting. For every one man who fought and died in battle, seven soldiers died from illness and diseases. The death rate from the soldiers with diseases was 110 thousand soldiers per year. Because of this, Harvey Wiley decided to begin his own investigation with the goal of “clearing the good name of American meats” (qtd. 1, 44).
Food inspection has been one of the biggest issues for humans health. And back in the day there was no inspection for it. And many people would get sick from the meat especially they would buy, it was an essential source of protein and back then there wasn’t vegan people everyone used meat. Based on document D meats would get stored in a dark room of course rat is one of the big problem when it come to food.
Eldercare and Eating Safely The National Institute of Health reports that nearly 48 million Americans get sick each year from eating contaminated food. The illness is seldom fatal, but seniors are not only at greater risk of becoming ill from contaminated foods, but they are at greater risk of severe complications. The two best-known causes of the illnesses are the E.coli and salmonella bacteria. One of the reasons seniors are at greater risk for food poisoning is that their stomachs do not produce as much stomach acid as they did when they were younger.
People were forced to consume contaminated food especially meat on a daily basis. This gave birth to many diseases such as food poisoning and liver failure. They did not have any other options because there were no laws prohibiting the sale of spoiled food. Soon enough, in 1906, Federal Food and Drug Act was passed. One of the key things this act did was embargoing the sale of any food or drug which has been adulterated or misbranded (4).
How would you feel people would feel knowing that they were ingesting contaminated foods? This was the case in the late 18th hundred and early 19th hundred many social and economic problems came to be in the United States. For example, one of the many problems that arose during these years were the sanitation conditions in the companies. To be more precise, food companies were getting away with many of the inspections the government would act on. Meat packing industries were becoming more unsafe everyday.
Most humans do not think of the consequence that processed foods have on our bodies. The big name food producers have manipulated the youth by offering products that go along with their favorite television show. The farming aspect of food production is horrible. The animals are treated very poorly. The process of slaughter is unsafe and very unsanitary.
The result of a different diet is the main caused of why cattle have such a short life span. The unnatural diet caused the cattle to get sick and pass the disease to humans who consume the meat. How is this process safe for the
People knew they were going to die with the way they were fed. They could probably hear there stomach rumbling throughout the day and
Using chitosan as a food preservative allows for reuse of this waste, making its use environmentally beneficial; while also reasonably cheap and cost-effective in production and usage. - Its biodegradability also allows chitosan biofilms to be beneficial to the environment. - The chitosan film has antibacterial and antifungal properties, meaning that it ultimately prolongs shelf-lives of the foods which it coats. - As chitosan film is a polysaccharide which physically coats the food product, it offers the advantage of being edible,