Citric Acid

Citric Acid, a weak organic acid, is a dry, odorless, and crystalline powder with a strongly acidic flavor. It has a tart taste that is slightly less complex than the flavor of a lemon. Our Citric Acid is produced from glucose syrup derived from cassava. It blends easily without creating a gritty mouth feel and is often used as a flavoring additive in foods, soft drinks and as a replacement for salt in some salt free seasoning blends. It is also known as lemon salt or sour salt. Citric Acid has been generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by all major national and international food regulatory agencies and has been approved by the FDA for use in food.

Citric acid is found naturally and comes from the fermentation of crude fruit sugars. It was discovered in the 8^th century CE by Persian scientist Jabir ibn Hayyan, one of the pioneers of experimentational chemistry. However, it was not purposely isolated from lemon juice until 1794 in Sweden, by Carl Wilhelm Scheele. Italy spearheaded the production of citric acid soon after, controlling it until World War I interrupted lemon supplies. In 1917 an American chemist, James Currie, was able to efficiently produce citric acid from a common black mold, Aspergillus niger, and he shaped many of the processes still in use in industrial production today.

Tips From Our Kitchen

Citric Acid can be used in place of lemon juice and has the same effect as lemons in preventing fresh fruit from browning. It helps control pH and can be used when making homemade canned fruits or jams in. Add to water to acidulate when making artichokes. Use to curdle milk when making a simple cheese like paneer. It is a natural emulsifier so add to your homemade ice cream to prevent fats from separating. For low-sodium diets, use Citric Acid as a substitute for salt; use an equal amount of citric acid as you would salt for bright flavor with none of the sodium.

Our Citric Acid is currently sourced from either Canada or Thailand.

This product is certified kosher.

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