CITROMA - Minus Acrylamide for Safe and Tasty Products

Jungbunzlauer’s CITROMA is capable to reduce the acrylamide content of French fries, chips breakfast cereals, and related products up to 80% without influencing sensorial properties.

06/04/09 Jungbunzlauer launches a new, patent-pending and cost-effective method to reduce the acrylamide content in processed foods such as French fries, chips and breakfast cereals.

Acrylamide, a suspected carcinogen can be formed in the presence of asparagine and reducing sugars during high-temperature heat treatment of starchy food. Significant amounts may evolve during baking, frying and roasting processes. The control of detrimental acrylamide in food plays an important role for food manufacturers to address food safety and consumer concerns.

Based on research in the Application Technology Center and external institutes as well as data from industrial trials of food producers, Jungbunzlauer’s CITROMA is capable to reduce the acrylamide content of French fries, chips breakfast cereals, and related products up to 80% without influencing sensorial properties.

One cornerstone of the successful development of CITROMA is based on the cooperation with the Emsland Group, Germany’s largest potato starch producer. Industrial trials confirmed the significant acrylamide reduction in fried snack products made from Emsland’s starch products with added CITROMA: potato intermediates such as flakes treated with up to 0.75% CITROMA showed identical functionality compared to standard and there was no need to change the existing process of snack manufacturing.

CITROMA is a registered trademark in Germany for a special mineral salt to tackle the acrylamide problem. It is a U.S. GRAS and EU approved sodium citrate (E331), a common acidity regulator. CITROMA has been optimised for acrylamide reduction, providing a pleasant, slightly acidic taste profile, quick dissolution properties, good solubility (180g/l) and high heat stability.

CITROMA may be added to the process by direct addition to a dry mix or dough, or it may be incorporated into a dipping bath or spraying solution. Depending on national legislation concerning processing aids, its use does not have to be labelled on the end product packaging when used as directed.