[Ooot]

Hey everyone,

I'm not really confident in my chemistry skills, and while I am somewhat into sciency things, I couldnt really figure out, how to solve this issue by mere googeling, so here I am:

I tend to cook stuff with a whole lot of citric acid (onions, tomatoes). My room mate suffers from allergic reaction to citric acid though. I just wanted to ask, if there is an easy way to destory those citric acid molekules in food in a way, that makes the product still edible. Mere heat seems to be insufficient, since 175°C are not easy to accomplish when making souces and such. So.... any ideas? Would be grateful for some support.

[jeffmoonchop]

thats a bad allergy to have citric acid is in a lot of foods. You wont be able to degrade citric acid very easily. It would be too risky to know whether its truly degraded anyway so I'd recommend avoiding foods with CA or get your roommate to cook his own food.

[billnotgatez]

baking soda?

[Borek]

My room mate suffers from allergic reaction to citric acid though.

That would be rather surprising, as citric acid is part of the cell metabolism (google citric acid cycle), so it is always present in our bodies, no matter if we consume it or not. Perhaps your roommate is allergic to something that commonly coexists with citric acid in the food? (That's not to dismiss their condition, it just sounds a bit strange).

I just wanted to ask, if there is an easy way to destory those citric acid molekules in food in a way, that makes the product still edible.

I am afraid not.

baking soda?

You are mistaking neutralization with decomposition. If it is allergy it is citrate anion that is a problem. Note that even if you completely neutralize the acid it will get protonated back in the stomach (pH around 2), then partially neutralized again in duodenum (pH goes down to about 5-6 at the end of duodenum), then - once absorbed into the blood stream - it will be put in a solution with pH around 7.35, where it is neutralized even further.

[Ooot]

That would be rather surprising, as citric acid is part of the cell metabolism (google citric acid cycle), so it is always present in our bodies, no matter if we consume it or not. Perhaps your roommate is allergic to something that commonly coexists with citric acid in the food? (That's not to dismiss their condition, it just sounds a bit strange).

Na, it's pretty much citric acid. There in general are a lot of things which appear in our body but one can be allergic to, take nickel as probably the most common example. It's just that those people suffer increased immune reactions once the concentration reaches a threshold, what seems to happen, when you eat some spoons of tomato soup.

I am afraid not.

Too bad

You are mistaking neutralization with decomposition. If it is allergy it is citrate anion that is a problem. Note that even if you completely neutralize the acid it will get protonated back in the stomach (pH around 2), then partially neutralized again in duodenum (pH goes down to about 5-6 at the end of duodenum), then - once absorbed into the blood stream - it will be put in a solution with pH around 7.35, where it is neutralized even further.

Yea, that's what I thought as well, just reducing the PH wont do, it's kinda about the molekule itself.

Thanks for clarification though!