14 DAY TRIAL // Many products that contain vitamin C also contain chemicals called anti-caking agents, whose sole mission is to prevent the degradation of the precious vitamin. A new study by researchers at the Purdue University demonstrates that these agents in fact destroy the very thing they were meant to protect.
Experts learned that they hasten the degradation of vitamin C, allowing the latter to dissolve at less than 86 percent relative humidity, which is its threshold. Interestingly enough, without some of the additives, sodium ascorbate was able to maintain its stability up to higher relative humidity levels.
The investigation was led by a collaboration of Purdue specialists, including food science professor Lisa Mauer, industrial and physical pharmacy professor Lynne Taylor and graduate student Rebecca Lipasek. The main goal in their research was to study deliquescence.
This term describes a type of chemical reaction in which crystalline solids start to dissolve under the influence of humidity. The very purpose of adding anti-caking agents to vitamin C is to prevent deliquescence from taking its usual course.
“The additives that the food industry puts in to make these powders more stable didn't help the vitamin C, and in some cases actually made things worse,” Lipasek explains, adding that the chemical loses all of its beneficial properties once its structure changes the slightest.
“Some of the agents act like little raincoats, covering the particles and protecting them from moisture. Others will absorb the water themselves, keeping it away from the vitamin C particles,” Mauer adds.
“I really thought some of those anti-caking agents would help, but they didn't,” the expert adds. Details of the new investigation were published in the latest issue of the scientific Journal of Food Science.
In future versions of the new study, the team will focus its attention on determining the exact amount of water or moisture that is needed to destabilize vitamin C molecules. Researchers will also assess the destabilizing effects of several anti-caking agents in more detail.
The new study was made possible by funds from the US Department of Agriculture (DoA) and the Purdue Faculty Scholars Program.
The reason why vitamin C is so important to humans is that it represents an essential nutrient for our species. Inside the body, it acts as an antioxidant chemical, helping protect cells against the oxidative stress produced by intense metabolisms.