Frontline Food Consultants and Engineers, provides specially engineered food and beverage consulting solutions to manufacture food-grade preservatives for the production of quality foods. From finding reliable sources of safe and effective preservatives to selecting the best preservative formulation, we make sure that your preservatives are fit for purpose in regard to industry standards and regulatory compliances. For example, we optimize methods including blending, combination and coagulation in order to develop preservatives for products that enhance their shelf life, color, taste, texture, and nutritional value.
Our Product development Services can include the development of preservatives with application-focus, natural, clean and synthetic labels. We offer Sustainability and Ingredient Sourcing Consultancy, we steer you towards environmentally friendly and non-GMO preservatives. Our R & D how and what new preservative systems can be formulated to cater to today’s market trend with less or no preservatives added. With Regulatory Compliance Consultancy and Quality Control Systems, the preservatives you need are compliant to safety regulations and the quality of foods they preserve is preserved.
What are Preservatives?
Preservatives are substances that are added to food products with a view of checking the growth of microorganisms or preventing categories such as oxidation or enzymatic browning. They must be natural or synthetic and both have their own advantages as well as their own set of distinct opportunities. Preservative manufacturing itself starts with proper selection of the active ingredients; they may encompass natural agents, such as salt, vinegar, and selected types of essential oils, synthetic substances of the sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate type, and many others. These ingredients depend with the type of spoilage that the กลับlisting needs to counterage its product, be it microbial, oxidation, or enzymatic.
After the specific ingredients have been chosen, they are then combined in the right proportion so that the efficacy of the product is not degraded the taste or texture and nutritional value of the food offering is not compromised. The preservative is also subjected to further experiments in real different types of foods to determine the efficiency of the preservative. Overall after testing, the preservative is manufactured and bottled in large quantities for usage by food producers. The packing intends to cover the preservative from moisture, light and other conditions which may hamper the performance of the preservative.
Types of Preservatives
Preservatives can be categorized based on their source and the type of preservation they provide:
Natural Preservatives
- Salt: Salt is considered as one of the oldest and most recognized preservatives till today. It has functions to remove moisture from the food and establish an environment that is not conducive for the formation of bacteria. It is used in the preparation of meat and fish products, pickles and sauces, and in baking. Doing so increases taste and also serves to preserve the food item from spoilage.
- Sugar: Sugar acts as a preservative through the process of denying water to bacteria because it creates a bond with water molecules. Sugar is most popularly used in making jams, jellies and fruit preserves. It assists in retaining its color and flavor and enhances its longevity.
- Vinegar: An acid preservative mainly vinegar is used to discourage the growth of bacteria and molds through changing the southern ph of the food products. Acidulant or pickling purposes are its uses in pickling vegetables and preserving sauces and condiments. It acts as a flavoring agent and aids in the textural and color retention of food conserved through preservation.
- Lemon Juice: Diluted lemon juice has been used to marinate the fishes as it is a natural source of citric acid which helps in preserving it due to the presence of an acidic component the ph level is reduced disallowing microbial activity. Lemon juice is being employed in intended fruits for canning, in culinary preparations for marinades, and in seafood preservation. It is used in raw food preparation for it improves flavor and also helps stop food from browning.
Synthetic Preservatives
- Sorbates: Sorbates including potassium sorbates and sodium sorbates are commonly used preservatives to prevent the growth of molds, yeasts and fungi. Sorbates are incorporated in baked products, cheese, wine, and dried fruits and vegetables. shelf life is also other significant benefit of the long safety storage period while preserving the taste and quality of foodstuffs.
- Benzoates: Sodium benzoate and potassium benzoate are effective preservatives with bacteriostatic, yeasts’ and moulds’ growth-inhibiting properties. Benzoates locate in acidic foods and medices like soft drinks, fruit juices and salad dressing. They work well in acidic base more specifically in conditions that have low pH.
- Nitrites and Nitrates: Some of nitrate sources include; sodium nitrite and potassium nitrate, with their main uses being used bacto- inhibitors and colorants for processed meats. Nitrites and nitrates are also added in cured meats, sausages and in hot dogs-Cured and smoked meats and fish. They aid in retaining a pink color and prevent the botulism-forming organism Clostridium botulinum.
- Sulfites: Sulphites are used in wine making especially sulfur dioxide, sodium sulfite and sodium metabisulfite as antimicrobial and antioxidant agents. The food which contains sulfites includes wines, dried fruits, and seafoods. It’s used to retard the browning and discoloration of foods as well as to enhance the shelf life.
- Propionates: Calcium propionate and sodium propionate are most common examples of this category and it works against molds and certain bacteria. In bread and other baked products, the benzoate preservatives used are propionates to preserve the baked products from mold without changing its taste.
The Role of pH in Preservatives
The shelf-life of preservatives, especially synthetic ones such as benzoates and sorbates greatly depends on the pH of the product to be preserved. These preservatives are effective in conditions of low pH, because they are capable of suppressing the development of microorganisms at better rates. For example, benzoates exhibit maximum effectiveness at a pH of less than 4.5 which renders them suitable for general use in foods with a low pH including soft drinks and fruit juices. Besides impacting the preservative’s antimicrobial effectiveness, the pH affects also preservative stability within the food and its solubility. There is therefore need to control pH within the formulation to enhance the performance of the preservative in the food product.
Production Process of Preservatives
The synthesis of preservatives is carried out in the following steps so that they should be effective and safe to use.
Extraction and Synthesis
- Natural Preservatives: Natural preservatives are obtained from mines, cane sugar, and citrus fruits with different natural preservatives. They are least processed to have the characteristics of the natural products that they are.
- Synthetic Preservatives: Synthetic preservatives can be obtained by chemical synthesis. They are designed to be strong-performing and safe for use with foods.
Purification
- Purification: All the natural and synthetic preservatives applied are first purified by eliminating all kinds of impurities and attaining the food-grade quality.
Standardization
- Consistency: Preservatives used in food products are usually standardized to try and make sure that next time the same preservative is going to be as effective as well as safe for consumption.