Can citric acid be eaten?

Citric acid is edible, but you should not eat too much. Citric acid is an important chemical raw material, which is widely used as flavor enhancer, solubilizer, antioxidant and deodorizer in food industry, and used to make lemons in pharmaceutical industry. Of course it's edible. Citric acid is an edible acid, which can enhance the normal metabolism in the body. Moderate amount is harmless to human body, but you can't eat more.

Extended information Citric acid is an important organic acid, also known as citric acid, colorless crystal, often containing one molecule of crystal water, odorless, with strong sour taste, and easily soluble in water. Its calcium salt is more soluble in cold water than in hot water, and is often used to identify and separate citric acid.

Anhydrous citric acid can be obtained by controlling proper temperature during crystallization. It has many uses in industry, food industry, cosmetics industry and so on.

Citric acid is also called citric acid, and its chemical name is 2- hydroxypropyl-1, 2,3-tricarboxylic acid. According to the different water content, it can be divided into citric acid monohydrate and anhydrous citric acid. Citric acid is widely used, accounting for more than 75% of the output of food industry. It can be used as sour agent, antioxidant and pH regulator for food, such as cold drinks, jams, fruits and cakes.

Used in pharmaceutical industry, accounting for about 10%, mainly used as anticoagulant, antacid, correctant, cosmetics and so on. Used in chemical industry, accounting for about 15%, used as buffer, complexing agent, metal cleaning agent, mordant, gelling agent, toner, etc.

It is widely used in electronics, textiles, petroleum, leather, architecture, photography, plastics, casting and ceramics.

Citric acid is mainly used as acidulant, solubilizer, buffer, antioxidant, deodorant, odorant, gelling agent, toner and so on. In addition, citric acid has the functions of bacteriostasis, color protection, flavor improvement and sucrose conversion.

References:

Baidu encyclopedia-citric acid