Citric acid, C6H8O7, is a weak organic acid. It is a natural preservative and is also used to add an acidic, or sour, taste to foods and soft drinks. In biochemistry, it is important as an intermediate in the citric acid cycle and therefore occurs in the metabolism of virtually all living things. It can also be used as an environmentally benign cleaning agent.
Citric acid exists in greater than trace amounts in a variety of fruits and vegetables, most notably citrus fruits. Lemons and limes have particularly high concentrations of the acid. Citric acid has a variety of uses, including some that are unexpected. Citric acid can be used for health, flavoring, cleaning, heart surgeries, and masking and eliminating odors.
In the food industry, citric acid is used for flavoring and for tenderizing meat. The naturally sour taste of citric acid is used in flavoring a variety of foods and may be found simply as a powder coating for sour candies. In sweet foods, citric acid is used to control the acidity of the other ingredients in the food.
In the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, in addition to being used as a vitamin supplement, citric acid in the form of citrated calcium carbamide is used to treat alcoholics, and to prevent negative reactions to necessary alcohol in perfumes, shaving lotions and cough syrups.
In the household, industrial and institutional industries, trends in environmentally friendly products gave way to the invention of citric acid cleaning agents that can attract and extract dirt and dissolves stuck-on debris.
