| Form | Colorless crystal, odorless, strong sour taste, easy to dissolve in water |
| MF | C6H10O8 |
| MW | 210.1388 |
| Melting point | -94 °C(lit.) |
| Boiling point | 56 °C760 mm Hg(lit.) |
| Density | 0.791 g/mL at 25 °C(lit.) |
| Refractive index | n20/D 1.359(lit.) |
| Pka | 3.138, 4.76, 6.401 |
| Stability | Stable. Incompatible with oxidizing agents, bases, reducing agents, nitrates. |
| ITEMS | STANDARD |
| Appearance | Colorless crystals or white crystalline powders |
| Assay | 99.5%-100.5% |
| Moisture | 7.5-8.8 |
| Sulphated Ash | ≤ 0.05% |
| Light Transmittance | ≥97.0% |
| Sulpahte | ≤150ppm |
| Chloride | ≤50ppm |
| Calcium | ≤75ppm |
| Heavy Metal | ≤5ppm |
| Iron | ≤5ppm |
| Oxalate | ≤100ppm |
| Readily Carbonizable | Not darker than STANDARD |
| Aluminium | ≤0.2ppm |
| Arsenic | ≤1ppm |
| Mercury | ≤1ppm |
| Lead | ≤0.5ppm |
| Endotoxin of Germ | ≤0.5IU/Mg |
| Tridodecylamine | ≤0.1ppm |
FOOD: They are mainly used in cool drinks and pickled products such as carbonated drinks, fruit juice drinks and lactic acid drinks. Their demand varies with the change of season and climate. Citric acid accounts for about 2 / 3 of the total consumption of sour agent. Adding citric acid to canned fruit can maintain or improve the flavor of fruit, improve the acidity of some fruit cans with low acidity (reduce pH value), weaken the heat resistance and inhibit the growth of microorganisms, and prevent the bacterial expansion and damage of canned fruit with low acidity. Adding citric acid as a sour agent in candy is easy to coordinate with fruit flavor. In gel foods, if citric acid is used in sauce and jelly, the negative charge of pectin can be effectively reduced. When processing canned vegetables, some vegetables show alkaline reaction. Using citric acid as pH regulator can not only taste, but also maintain their quality. Citric acid has the characteristics of chelation and pH adjustment, so that it can increase the performance of antioxidants, inhibit enzyme activity and prolong the storage life of food in the processing of quick-frozen food.
Fine chemical industry: Citric acid is a kind of fruit acid, its main role is to accelerate the regeneration of keratin, commonly used in emulsion, cream, shampoo, whitening products, anti-aging products, acne products, etc. In chemical technology, citric acid can be used as reagent for chemical analysis, experimental reagent, chromatographic reagent and biochemical reagent; Used as complexing agent and masking agent; Used to prepare buffer solution.
Animal breeding: Citric acid can reduce the proliferation of pathogens, inhibit the production of toxic metabolites and improve animal stress.
Metal cleaning: Citric acid is an organic acid produced by microbial fermentation. It is widely used in detergent production. Its own specificity and chelation play a positive role.
