Ph Of Food Essay

Food science, or the study of the chemical composition of food, is a field dedicated to understanding the ins and outs of the food people cook and eat every day. Food scientists determine why certain foods spoil faster than others, why some foods take longer to cook, and which foods could be potentially hazardous if not prepared in certain ways. One important thing food scientists research is the pH of a substance, which determines how acidic or basic it is. Food scientists care about the pH of food because the pH of food determines its taste, color, and how long it takes to spoil. The pH of a substance can drastically change how it tastes, with highly acidic foods tasting sour and basic foods tasting bitter. Humans mostly eat acidic foods, …show more content…
Most microbes prefer to grow in environments with a neutral or slightly acidic pH, while mold can opimately grow at pHs as low as 4. This range of pHs allows for things like milk, meat, and other dairy products with a pH of around 6-7 being highly susceptible to bacterial growth. The current accepted lowest pH any bacteria can grow at all at is 4. This knowledge is used to help preserve certain foods that would otherwise be susceptible to microorganisms. The concept of pickling is founded on lowering the pH of the substance being pickled through submerging it in vinegar or other acidic substances for an extended period of time. In cases where substance can’t be or aren’t desired to be pickled, they can be canned, which effectively allows for small amounts of acidic substances to be added to a substance to make it acidic enough to where nothing to grow when the substance is sealed in a container. In the case of milk and dairy products, their rate of spoiling can be reduced by increasing their acid content through fermenting their lactose content into lactic acid, which would cause bacteria to grow at a slower