The Importance of Lactic Acid in the Current Food Industry. An Introduction

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to give a brief and reliable overview of possible uses for lactic acid as additive in the current food industry. The importance of lactic acid in the food industry is apparently linked to microbial activity of certain life forms, in particular lactic acid bacteria. Consequently, fermentative bacteria are commonly employed in the food industry as starter cultures for industrial processing. On the other hand, lactic acid can be also used as food additive in the industry of edible products without the presence of lactic acid bacteria. This option can be extremely useful in various ambits. In spite of the main recommended use for this compound (intended as two optical isomers and the racemic mixture of them) as acidity regulator in many food products, several limitations should be considered in certain situations when speaking of maximum allowed amounts and the exclusive use of one isomer only. In addition, several different additives are chemically derived from lactic acid. For this reason, the application spectrum of lactic acid may be broader than the above-mentioned sit- uation, with correlated exceptions and limitations.