Because of its low toxicity and the mildness of its basic properties, slaked lime is widely used in the food industry as a fortifying supplement in fruit drinks and as a substitute for baking soda. It is also used to clarify raw juice from sugarcane.

Also known as slaked lime, hydrated lime, builders’ lime, caustic lime and pickling lime, Calcium hydroxide is a chemical with wide-spread use across a host of industries. By structure and composition, it is an inorganic compound, occurring either as colourless crystals or as a white powder. Traditionally, calcium hydroxide is produced by stirring calcium oxide or quick lime with water.

While water treatment, paper manufacturing, pickling and food refining are the more common uses of calcium hydroxide, several other uses exist. For instance, calcium hydroxide can also be used to prepare dry mixes for painting, manufacture pesticides and manufacture break-pads for vehicles.

Citric acid is used as a flavor enhancer in beverages. It is used in soft drinks, teas, juices, and other beverages to create a slightly tart, refreshing flavor and balance sweetness.

The acidic pH of citric acid also makes it useful as a preservative. Since many bacteria are unable to grow in an acidic environment, citric acid is often added to jams, jellies, candy, canned foods, and even meat products as a preservative.

Because citric acid can be made in a powder form, it can be used in dry foods when a sour flavor is desired. Citric acid is sometimes used to create an acidic environment and facilitate the ripening process when making cheese, particularly mozzarella.

A weak tribasic acid, citric acid is organic in composition. A vital part of metabolism in most living organisms, citric acid is widely prevalent in nature.

Citric acid is mass produced owing to its popular demand and vast applications. Some of the conventional uses of this acid are acidifiers, chelating agents and flavouring agents.

Citric acid prevails in two major forms, the anhydrous or water-free form and the monohydrate form. The anhydrous form is crystallized by application of hot water, whereas the monohydrate form is extracted by using cold water crystallization. Citric acid has numerous applications in the food industry and cosmetic industry.

Dextrose Monohydrate is widely used as a sweetener in food and beverages. Dextrose Monohydrate is also widely used in the manufacturing of nutritional supplements and energy supplements as a source of glucose.

A stable, odourless, white crystalline powder, Dextrose Monohydrate (D-glucose) is a sugar that contains one part water molecule and one part dextrose molecule.

The water molecule structure is described as ‘co-ordinated’, which implies a loose and desirable chemical linkage allowing for a wide range of features applicable to the food industry. Used as sweeteners, bulking agents, viscosity agents, gelation agents, dextrose monohydrate commonly makes an appearance in cereals, confectionaries, energy drinks and bakery products of all kinds.

Liquid Glucose is widely used as nutritional supplement and sweetener in food production as well as a nutritional supplement in infant formula to improve nutrition value. As a sweetener, it is used in confectioneries to provide a cool taste and to enhance yeast growth and improve appearance in bakery items.

A combination of saccharides (simple carbohydrates), liquid glucose is manufactured from different sources via a strict cycle of vacuum evaporation and refining process. The resulting solution can vary in transparency, from transparent and colourless to semi-viscous aqueous yellow. Because of its versatile nature, Liquid glucose is useful in cooking applications, as it imparts form, body, consistency and resistance against discolouration to food products. Most hard candies are made of liquid glucose, along with chewing gums, mouth fresheners, biscuits, cakes and pies.

Corn starch is used as a thickening agent in liquid-based foods like soup, sauces, gravies, custard, etc by mixing it with a lower-temperature liquid to form a paste or slurry. It is sometimes preferred over flour because it forms a translucent mixture, rather than an opaque one.

Maize startch is popularly known as corn flour, corn starch or simply referred to as maize. Maize starch is the carbohydrate content extracted from the endosperm of the maize (corn) grain. Maize starch is well known for its use as a thickening agent in processed, liquid-based food products. The maize starch thickener is conventionally prepared by blending maize starch powder with a liquid of lower temperature to obtain a translucent paste or slurry fluid. Sauces, soups, gravies, custards are customary maize starch products. Other applications include starching laundry, anti- caking, sugar syrup making, natural latex manufacturing and glucose supplicants manufacturing.

Maltodextrin is used in food to create bulk in foods that have a liquid or gelatin-like texture. When added to foods such as salad dressings or instant pudding, maltodextrin helps to reduce thei viscosity, making it thicker. Other foods that usually contain maltodextrin for this purpose include canned fruits, desserts, protein shakes, instant pudding and sauces.

Primarily a polysaccharide, malto dextrin is most commonly used as a food additive. Widely present in soft drinks, candies and other processed food, this hygroscopic food additive is a white, spray-dried powder that is either partially sweet or flavourless.

Malto dextrin is extracted from starch, usually corn starch or wheat starch, using an enzymatic process. The derivative largely finds application in breweries as it improves the wetness of beer. Sacks like potato chips, jerky, peanut butter are given their texture by use of this product. Malto dextrin also acts as nutrition supplement in several food products as it can be easily digested.

Ragi flour is recommended as weaning food for babies because of its high nutritional content. It prevents malnutrition and provides adequate amount of energy too. It has high nutritional content. Ragi is non-glutinous and non- acidic, making it easy to digest. It is a good laxative too. Ragi flour is ideal for pregnant mothers and helps build immunity to the baby in the womb. The fibre content in ragi lowers cholesterol and help to maintain blood sugar levels. Mothers having gestational diabetes can use ragi/ ragi products instead of other grains as it will help control their blood sugar level.

Derived from finger millet, ragi flour is a primary carbohydrate source. Particularly adding value to ragi’s nutritional composition is the amino acid methionine, an essential amino acid that is not generated within the body. Lacking in the staple diet of most people, methionine is compensated for, by consumption of ragi. Apart from traditional Indian recipes, ragi flour is also used to make cakes, puddings, porridge, beer and flavoured drinks.

Rice flour is a particularly good substitute for wheat flour, which causes irritation in the digestive systems of those who are gluten-intolerant. Rice flour is also used as a thickening agent in recipes that are refrigerated or frozen since it inhibits liquid separation.

Rice flour is the powder obtained by finely grinding rice grains. Because of the absence of irritants, rice flour is a popular option as a carbohydrate source, inviting wide applications in the food industry, as thickening agents and binding agents.

Rice flour can be sourced from white, red or brown rice, each having its own features, consistencies and carbohydrate contents. Rice flour is extensively used in baking and cooking, a wide range of dishes and food products. Brown rice is also used to cultivate mushrooms in conjunction with vermiculite.

Baking soda is a leavening agent used to make dough rise. The alkalizing effect of baking soda will soften the fiber in beans and start to dissolve the protein, making the beans easier to digest after cooking.

Sodium bicarbonate makes soda fizzy by producing carbon dioxide gas when mixed with an acid such as phosphoric acid or carbonic acid found in many colas.

Sodium Bicarbonate is an ingredient used in the manufacturing of food colorants. Because of its anti-caking and stabilizing properties, it's used in the base of many food color gels. Usually this is used in such minute amounts that it has very little effect on your blood sodium levels.

Sodium and bicarbonate ions combine to form Sodium bicarbonate. It is a salt in white crystalline solid or powder form. In its natural form, it is termed nahcolite. Commonly referred to as baking soda, this salt is attributed with an alkaline taste much like the washing soda (Sodium carbonate).

Baking soda is one among the many conventional names attached to this salt. Some others are bread soda, aerated salt, cooking soda and bicarbonate of soda.

Baking soda, apparent from its name, is fundamentally used in baking. The ions in this salt react with components of baking mixtures resulting in production of carbon-di-oxide, which causes the mix to rise and form characteristic textures.

Popularly known as salt and also referred to as halite, sodium chloride is one of the most widely used chemicals. Present in every substance from sea water to extracellular fluid in living organisms, salt has multi-functional responsibilities.

Salt used in cooking for taste and disinfection is also commercially applied as a food preservative to large varieties of products. Industrial processes, chemical syntheses, de-icing of roadways and laundry agents all employ salt as a major functional component.

Sorbitol is a sugar alcohol (polyol) commonly used as a sweetener in sugar-free sweets and chewing gum, diet and diabetic foods, amongst other products. It is produced by the human body and also occurs in fruit, beer and berries. Some medicines like cough syrups and laxatives also contain Sorbitol.

A sugary alcohol, sorbitol is manufactured by the reduction of glucose. Another name for sorbitol is glucitol, owing to its most common source, glucose.

The glucose content to obtain sorbitol is traditionally drawn from corn syrup. Other possible sources are fruits like apples, peaches and pears.

One of the most common applications of sorbitol is its use as a sweetener. Sorbitol possesses 60% of the sweetness of sucrose. Other applications include medical applications as laxatives and softgels, and as thickeners in cosmetics like mouth washes and toothpastes.

Lecithins are oily substances that occur naturally in plants and animals.

Some people use lecithin as a supplement because of its high choline content. Choline is a micronutrient that is good for a healthy heart and for brain development. But that’s not the reason it is used as an additive in foods. Soy lecithin possesses emulsification properties. It is also used in bakery items to keep the dough from sticking and to improve its ability to rise.

A yellowish-brown fatty acid found primarily in plant tissues is labelled as ‘lecithin’. Amongst loving water and fats and freely binding with both, lecithins have a number of desirable properties. Owing to these properties, lecithins are used to smooth food textures, improve food dissolution properties (emulsifiers), homogenize a mix of liquids and repel sticky materials.

Soy lecithins are constituents of numerous candy bars, used to bind substances together to ensure they don’t fall apart. Bakery dough, cocoa, cocoa butter and other components of food products are bound by soy lecithin.
Some other unconventional products that use soy lecithin are teabags, inhalers, cough drops and medicinal preparations.

Although the main reason for the use of sugar is its sweet taste, sugar has many other functions in food technology. Sugar in foods acts as a sweetener, preservative, texture modifier, fermentation substrate, flavouring and colouring agent, bulking agent.

Sugar is short chain, soluble carbohydrates, widely used to sweeten food products. Sugars exist is various forms, largely categorised as simple and complex sugars. Simple sugars, termed as ‘monosaccharides’, include glucose, fructose sand galactose. These sugars are made up of repetitive units of similar building blocks. Complex sugars or ‘disaccharides’, such as sucrose, maltose and lactose are made of a combination of smaller dissimilar units of simple sugars. Longer chains of sugars are termed as ‘oligosaccharides’.

Although sugars are found in all plants, only select plants like sugarcane and beet have sufficient concentrations of sugar which make it economical to extract the product.