Glossary of food & beverage ingredient terms
All
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Citric acid |
An odorless, colorless naturally occuring organic acid with the empirical formula C6H8O7 in the anhydrous form. Citric acid widely distributed in plants and animals and plays a key role in fundamental metabolic processes such as the oxidative breakdown of dietary proteins, carbohydrates and fats. |
| Citric acid [anhydrous] |
This grade of citric acid with less than 0.5% moisture and is 99.5% (minimum) pure. |
| Citric acid [monohydrate] |
The moisture content of the Citric Acid monohydrate is 8.8% (maximum) but this may change on storage due to efflorescence. |
| Cold water soluble starch |
This term is often used to denote pregelatinized, cold water swelling, or cold water dispersable starches. |
| Cook-ups |
starches that must be cooked to provide viscosity or thickening for a food system. |
| Crosslinked starch |
Starch which has been treated with a bi- or polyfunctional reagent by the manufacturer so that a small number of the starch polymer chains are chemically linked by the cross linking reagent moiety. Crosslinking partially inhibits granule swelling on gelatinization and gives increased stability to acid environments, heat treatment, and shear forces. Extremely low levels of crosslinking are effective in achieving these objectives. Crosslinking is widely used to prepare chemically-modified starches for the processed food industry. |
| Crosslinking |
the linking together of starch chains using a chemical reagent. This strengthens the granule and reduces both the rate and the degree of granule swelling and subsequent disintegration. Thus, crosslinked starches are less sensitive to processing conditions than native starch granules. |
| Degree of polymerisation [DP] |
The degree of polymerization of a polymer is the average number of monomer units in the molecule. It refers to the average number of anhydroglucose units in the molecule. The abbreviations DP1, DP2 etc. refer to polymer chains where the number of anhydroglucose units is known. Abbreviations such as DP 3+ are used to denote all unknown degrees of polymerisation of 3 and above. The abbreviation Dpn is used to denote a fraction with an unkown degree of polymerization. |
| Dextrin |
Dextrins are starch hydrolysis products obtained in a dry roasting process either using starch alone or with trace levels of acid catalyst. These products have a good film forming and adhesive properties. They are used by the food industry as coatings in the adhesive toppings and in batters and breadings. |
| Dextrinization |
a chemical modification process in which dry starch is heated in the presence of acid to produce products with higher solubility, lower viscosity and better stability than native starches. Products of this process are called dextrins. |
| Dextrose |
D-glucose obtained by the complete hydrolysis of starch, followed by purification and crystallization. Dextrose can be obtained as the anhydrous or monohydrate form. The monohydrate contains one molecure of water per molecule of D-glucose. |
| Dextrose equivalent |
The reducing power of a starch hydrolysis product experessed as a % of the reducing power of the same weight of D-glucose. The higher the D.E., the lower the number average molecular weight of the product. The maximum possible D.E. is 100 (i.e. pure dextrose). |
| Drum-dried starch |
Also known as roll-dried starch. Pregelatinized starch made by cooking and drying a starch paste on stem-heated rolls. A starch slurry or paste is deposited in a thin layer on rotating heated drums or rolls. The dried film is recmoved with a scraper then the product i sground in a mill to the desired particle size. Chemicals may be added before, during, or after drum drying. |
| Dusting starch |
Starch powder that is applied to substrate in order to reduce or eliminate adhesion to other substrates. |
| Enzymatic hydrolysis |
This term refers to the depolymerization of starch under the action of an amylase enzyme. Enzymatic reactions have the advantage of producting highly specific distributions of glucose sugars and oligomers; they have largely superceded acid hydrolysis in the manufacture of glucose syrups and other starch hydrolysates. |