Citric acid : product and applications

A healthy adult human body produces and metabolises some 1.5 kg of citric acid a day.

Apart from this, we absorb this product in a large variety of forms from our natural diet.
Citric acid has several highly variable features.
Being a purely biological product, it can be applied risk-free in the food and pharmaceutical industry.
Hence, it is used in a growing number of products.

As a flavouring, citric acid is used in soft drinks, fruit juices, sweets, jams and jellies.
It also acts as an antioxidant in prepared meats and in tinned vegetables and fruit.
Citric acid also stabilises the ph value in effervescent tablets, jams, gelatine and detergents.
As a binding agent it is especially used in biodegradable detergents.

The production of citric acid also releases several co-products that are increasingly sold in the market.
For instance, the liquid remaining after concentration in a multiple-effect evaporator is sold as a binding agent for feed under the brand name Citrocol ®.
Its low potassium content, moreover, improves the feed's flavour.
The mycelium, Citrocell ®, is rich in protein and consequently exceptionally suitable as feed.
The potassium salt reclaimed from the residual substances is much appreciated as a fertiliser and is supplied to agriculture under the brand name Syngenite.
Finally, there is lime, supplied as Citrogips ® to the industry, for instance as a filler in cement, a filter in the feed industry or in medical applications.