Citric Acid

Citric acid is a weak organic acid which occurs naturally in citrus fruits and serves as a natural preservative/conservative used in adding an acidic or sour taste to foods and drinks. It is a commodity chemical used mainly as an acidifier, as a flavoring, and as a chelating agent.

The dominant use of citric acid is as a flavoring and preservative in food and beverages, especially soft drinks. Citric acid can be added to ice cream as an emulsifying agent to keep fats from separating, to caramel to prevent sucrose crystallization, or in recipes in place of fresh lemon juice. Citric acid is used with sodium bicarbonate in a wide range of effervescent formulae, both for ingestion (e.g., powders and tablets) and for personal care (e.g., bath salts, bath bombs, and cleaning of grease). Citric acid is also often used in cleaning products and sodas or fizzy drinks.

It is an excellent chelating agent binding metals. It is used to remove lime scale from boilers and evaporators. It can be used to soften water, which makes it useful in soaps and laundry detergents. By chelating the metals in hard water, it lets these cleaners produce foam and work better without need for water softening. Citric acid is the active ingredient in some bathroom and kitchen cleaning solutions. It is used to dissolve rust from steel and used in shampoo to wash out wax and coloring from the hair.

Citric acid is widely used as a pH adjusting agent in creams and gels of all kinds. In this role, it is classified in most jurisdictions as a processing aid and so does not need to be listed on ingredient lists. Citric acid is used as one of the active ingredients in the production of antiviral tissues.

Citric acid can be used in food coloring to balance the pH level of a normally basic dye. It is used as an odorless alternative to white vinegar for home dyeing with acid dyes.

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