Potassium sorbate

Christmas is nearly here and it is now the time to buy the typical Christmas products. One of my favorites is the Italian Panetones. But, have you ever wondered how it can stay in perfect texture throughout the whole Christmas holidays?

In the ingredient list of my panetone I found Potassium Sorbate

So let’s find out a little bit more about this additive.

Potassium Sorbate is an inexpensive yellowish crystalline powder used to expand the shelf life of products, so basically it a food preservative (E number202).

Potassium sorbate is salt of sorbic acid and is prepared by reacting sorbic acid with potassium hydroxide. Its chemical formula C₆H₇KO_2.

But don’t worry, it can be fully digested and, although a freshly made Panetone will eventually taste better, the added products won’t ruin your tasty Christmas experience.

Caffeine

Each morning, thousands of people in the world wake up with a nice mug of coffee. But what exactly is so special about coffee?

Coffee contains a special substance called caffeine; this is what makes coffee so bitter. Pure caffeine is a white powder and is one of the most popular drugs in the world.

Caffeine (C₈H₁₀N₄O₂) is the common name for trimethylxanthine and belongs to the family of heterocyclic compounds known as purines. Is a plant-based alkaloid which stimulates the central nervous system of any creature that ingests it. In nature, caffeine serves as a form of pest control for certain plants such as cacao trees as the caffeine causes insects and other pests to collapse from the effects of over-stimulation.

Don’t worry though, although caffeine is called a drug, it is legal and the effects aren’t great if you just drink one cup of coffee or two. So enjoy your breakfast!

Butylated Hydroxytoluene

As usual today in the morning I ate a cereal bar for breakfast and I went to school. Cereal bars normally are said to be made of natural ingredients, but today, when I looked at the ingredient list though, I found a quite strange substance: Butylated hydroxytoluen. I mean, one knows this isn’t natural just by reading the name!

Butylated hydroxytoluene, for short BHT, is a fat soluble organic compound that is used as an anti-oxidant and food additive (E number E321). It works by slowing down the oxidation rate of ingredients which can cause a change in smell and color. So basically it helps the product to maintain the color, aroma and freshness.

It is primarily used to prevent fats in foods from becoming rancid, but it is also used as an antioxidant in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, jet fuels, rubber and petroleum products.

In the pharmaceutics area it is used as an anti-viral agent in pet foods and it has been shown to suppress some viruses in humans.

It is primarily made from the chemicals p-cresol & isobutylene. P-cresol is a chemical that is a mosquito attractant while isobutylene is a flammable substance one hydrocarbon away from common butane: 

CH₃(C₆H₄)OH + 2 CH₂=C(CH₃)₂ → ((CH₃)₃C)₂CH₃C₆H₂OH

When pure it is found as a white, crystalline or flaked solid, odorless or having a characteristic faint.

It really is incredible that one compound can be used to treat food we can digest safely and at the same time it is used to treat oil and plastic which are toxic for us.

table salt

Salt is one of the most common minerals in the world, many of us take it for granted that it comes from the sea and that it’s just that plain white powder we put on our food. Although this is all true, salt has a much deeper background.

Salt also known is a mineral that is composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of ionic salts. It forms in translucent white cubic crystals and occurs commonly in the mineral form, halite, also called rock salt. It can be formed by theacid-base reaction of hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide:

HCl + NaOH à H₂O + NaCl

Chloride and sodium ions, the two major components of salt, and are needed by all known living creatures in small quantities. Salt is involved in regulating the water content of the body. The sodium ion itself is used for electrical signaling in the nervous system. 

Salt is currently mass-produced by evaporation of seawater or brine from brine wells and salt lakes. Mining of rock salt is also a major source.

Sodium chloride is also used to produce sodium carbonate and calcium chloride. Sodium carbonate is used to produce glass, sodium bicarbonate, and dyes as well as myriad other chemicals. (For more info on sodium carbonate look at my post: sodium-bicarbonate)

Salt is considered one of the most important substances for humans, may have head that in the past, it was as important as gold, so now you know, we all have a small treasure in our kitchens!

Phosphoric acid

Most of us know that coke is bad for our teeth because of the high sugar content, but is it just because of the sugar? I looked at the ingredient list and found this: Phosphic acid.

This acid is an inorganic acid with the chemical formula H₃PO₄. 

It is used to make phosphate salts for fertilizers, in dental cements, in the preparation of albumin derivatives, and in the sugar  industries as it serves as an acidic, fruitlike flavoring in food products.

Although it is an acid and it can be corrosive when the concentration is higher than 85%, when in an aqueous solution it is clear, colorless, odorless and most importantly it isn’t toxic.


If you are interested on further properties of coke and what Phosphic acid can do, check out the video links below, you’ll be blown off your chairs!

A simple but amazing experiment you can do at home with Coca-Cola and plastic utensils. Shows how harmful phosphoric acid, which is in many sodas, can be.

AMAZING experiment with Coca-Cola and Plastic Utensils

An other interesting experiment

An egg in cola

Glycerin

more about this compound

related videos:

Amazing Properties of Glycerin

Disapparing glass in glycerin