Food & Wine Chemistry

Food stabilizers are a class of food additives that enable food to be formed and maintain stable form and texture. It mainly includes gums, dextrins, sugar esters and other sugar derivatives. Different foods have different consistencies and textures. No two stabilizers are exactly alike, and one is usually more effective than the other in a given application. Mixtures of stabilizers are often more effective than either stabilizer alone, especially in ice cream manufacturing. Thickeners are used in food mainly to give the food the required rheological properties, to change the texture and appearance of the food, to form the liquid, pulpy food into a specific form and to make it stable and homogeneous, and to improve the quality of the food in order to give it a viscous and palatable feel. ... View more

Food ingredients are substances that are added to food to achieve a desired effect. Food ingredients usually include food additives, i.e. substances added to food during processing, storage or packaging for specific technical and/or functional purposes. I know each kind of food ingredient has its specific funtions. However, can someone summarize what are the main functions of food ingredients as a whole? ... View more

Food testing services help brands, retailers, manufacturers and suppliers provide consumers with safer products and ultimately eliminate food safety issues. Read More here: https://www.alfachemic.com/testinglab/_resource/flyer/Food-Testing-Services-com.pdf ... View more

Hello! I spent many hours making a rosehip and orange marmalade. Collecting the rosehips, cutting the rosehips, taking the seeds out. I put the rosehip/orange mixture through an old metal sieve/strainer that I bought from a thrift store. It is made of some type of steel or metal. It is gray, and very slightly rusted. When the mixture made contact with the sieve, some of it turned a blackish purple colour. Is this okay to eat??? What is going on here. I am really upset because I spent a lot of time on this. I also made other things with the sieve, like nannyberry butter, but did not notice the discolouration, though the nannyberry was already blackish, but it wasn't acidic. So about 3/4 has been completely discoloured, I seperated the rest of it, and that is only very slightly discoloured. Are either of these ok to eat? Note the person I bought the sieve from, said that it was for the kitchen, and said that it was old, like 1960s even. ... View more

Hello there, this is a shot in a dark, but I'm wondering if anyone here could help me with this issue that I've been having. I am currently trying to add Oleoresin of Paprika into a sausage that I am fermenting, smoking and dry aging. I use the oil soluble version. The issue becomes that once emulsified and stuffed the sausage it all looks great. But once i get to the fermentation stage and the sausage reaches around 30C, the oleoresin splits from the emulsification and drags out all the water and other fats from my sausages turning it into a mush.  I am adding 2% of oleoresin to the whole mass.  Does anyone here have any experience with this and could help me please? ... View more