Neutralized Vinegar Concentrate via Potassium Adjustment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for producing concentrated vinegar face challenges in achieving high acetic acid concentrations while maintaining quality, stability, and regulatory compliance, with existing techniques being costly, inefficient, or undesirable for food applications.
Innovation Solution
Neutralization of vinegar with an alkalizing agent, specifically potassium, followed by evaporation to achieve a concentrated vinegar product with high dry matter content and acidity, ensuring microbiological and physical stability, and allowing for labeling as a natural food ingredient.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If vinegar is concentrated by simple evaporation, then concentration is improved, but quality and stability deteriorate due to close boiling points of water and acetic acid and low flash point of acetic acid
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the pH parameter of vinegar from acidic to neutral or alkaline range through neutralization with basic substances (sodium carbonate, potassium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, or potassium hydroxide). This parameter change enables safe evaporation concentration by eliminating the low flash point issue of acetic acid while preserving the functional properties of vinegar for food preservation and flavoring applications.
2Quantity of substance
If freeze concentration is used to produce concentrated vinegar, then concentration is improved, but cost and energy consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using energy-intensive freeze concentration, the patent applies neutralization to change the chemical parameters of vinegar, enabling subsequent evaporation concentration at lower energy costs. The neutralized vinegar can be concentrated by evaporation without the high energy input required for freezing and subsequent separation processes.
3Quantity of substance
If vinegar is neutralized and concentrated by evaporation, then concentration is improved, but crystallization occurs upon cooling
Solution Approach 1:
The patent optimizes the neutralization parameters by carefully controlling the pH to specific ranges (5.5-8.0 for potassium neutralized vinegar, 6.0-8.0 for sodium neutralized vinegar) and adjusting the molar ratio of base to acetic acid. This parameter optimization prevents excessive salt formation that would cause crystallization, while still enabling effective concentration and providing microbiological stability during storage.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The process results in a stable, concentrated vinegar product with high acetic acid content, suitable for industrial food processing, offering improved microbiological stability and reduced dosage requirements, while maintaining a 'natural' label status.
Implementation Method 1
Neutralization of vinegar with an alkalizing agent, specifically potassium
Implementation Method 2
followed by evaporation to achieve a concentrated vinegar product with high dry matter content and acidity
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention concerns the field of liquid, concentrated food preservation products, in particular concentrated vinegar products. The present inventors found a way to obtain an excellent concentrated vinegar product by simple evaporation, which concentrated vinegar product can be used as intermediate in the production of products that can be listed on food labels as "vinegar". An essential element of the present invention resides in the neutralization of the vinegar with an alkalizing agent comprising cationic potassium. The present inventors found that potassium neutralized vinegar behaves significantly more favorable than other neutralized vinegars under the conditions typically applied in the process of concentrating by evaporation. Hence, the invention in particular pertains to a process of producing a neutralized vinegar concentrate, to the neutralized vinegar concentrate thus obtained, to blends of the neutralized vinegar concentrate with other food grade ingredients, in particular other food grade organic acids, to the application of the neutralized vinegar concentrate and the blends of this invention in the preservation of food products and to the food products thus obtained.