Question

What are the culinary characteristics (how heat, pH, fats, water affect it) on food grade titanium dioxide? In other words, how is the food color additive titanium dioxide affected by heat, pH, fats, and water?

Answer 1

What are the culinary characteristics (how heat, pH, fats, water affect it) on food grade titanium dioxide? In other words, how is the food color additive titanium dioxide affected by heat, pH, fats, and water?

Food grade titanium oxide: TiO₂ is a naturally occurring mineral that is mined from the earth, processed and refined, and added to a variety of foods, as well as other consumer products. White in color, it is used to enhance the color and sheen of certain foods and is also key for food safety applications. In its natural state it exists in different bulk crystalline forms, such as anatase and rutile, but during processing it is ground into a very fine powder. As TiO₂ is been used widely, it is in important to know about the effect of peripheral conditions.

Effect on food grade titanium dioxide:

Heat: Generally TiO₂ is inactive by nature and it has very slow reaction rate, which renders its poisoning effect. As TiO₂ stay as fine powder or as nano particals, upon heating its activity gets pumped up. Adsorption behavior also increased on heating but upon excess heating or heating beyond limit it gets deactivated.

Fats: TiO₂ plays an important role for the degradation of fats and biomolecules and its special activity has drawn enormous attention of the scientists. Finer the partical, its activity will be on peak. And by this is, TiO₂ protects the food also.

pH: Acidity plays an important role in food industry. TiO₂ is a strong candidate for the food processing as it is inactive towards acid. It is shown by the scientists that in 10mL of concentrated sulphuric acid, 1g of TiO₂ is not digested with in 1 day at room temperature. While upon heating upto 250⁰C the same got digested by 10 hours.

Water: It is resistant to water and practically insoluble. Which helps while preparation of this and during separation too.   Moisture get adsorb at the active sites of nano clustures of TiO ₂ and protect the food gradients.