We all know and love citric acid. The naturally occurring fruit acid, produced commercially by microbial fermentation of a carbohydrate substrate, is the most widely used organic acid and pH-control agent in foods, beverages, pharmaceuticals, and technical applications. This customer favorite, however, can sometimes be misunderstood.  

 

Have you ever used standard citric acid to create a bath bomb and noticed an annoying sticky tendency to it? Or used a new ingredient in your recipe and had a bad reaction? This, in part, is due to the standard Citric Acid and the inherent reactivity of this raw material.  

 

Citric Acid is the parent of various citric acid variants. Coating Citric Acid with suitable transparent shell materials or adding high-quality materials to citric acid leads to an exceptional range of modified citrics and fine-tuning the desired functionality for end-use applications. These variants have particular properties that prevent unsought reactions from happening too early. Citric Acid will always react once in use, however, it can have a tendency to react too early or start to break down before the product is in use. For a bath bomb, that means when introduced to water. For a tablet, that might mean when introduced to mucus or other bodily fluids. A particularly good variant that combats citric acid from reacting at the wrong time is CITROCOAT N. CITROCOAT N is comprised of Citric Acid as the core material with a layer of citrate as shell material. 

 

CITROCOAT N is the best variant for reducing the reactivity of citric acid with other ingredients, especially with sodium bicarbonate. CITROCOAT N also has a higher breaking force and lower friability, meaning it doesn’t chip or break apart in your hands as easily. Its modifications prevent undesired reactions with other ingredients as well as protection against moisture without losing its original function.

 

 Its main functions are:  

• Reducing stickiness during the process 
• Reducing reactivity of Citric Acid with other ingredients (especially sodium bicarbonate)  
• Increasing shelf life of end products  

 

Benefits of CITROCOAT N in effervescent tablet form:

• Pleasant taste: As the tablets dissolve in water, it makes them the preferred choice for people who are taking tablets medicinally as well as dietary supplements.
• Full benefit of ingredients: Conventional tablets dissolve slowly (reduced absorption rates), whereas effervescent tablets dissolve quickly and completely.
• Less irritation and greater tolerability: Conventional tablets dissolve gradually in the gastrointestinal tract; with effervescent tablets no (or reduced) localized concentration of the ingredients can occur.
• Easy to swallow and do not require stirring to dissolve

 

A key feature to note about CITROCOAT N is that blending ratios could change when using CITROCOAT N vs. Citric Acid. One of the goals of CITROCOAT N is to be more cost-effective than Citric Acid. In theory, since Citric Acid lasts longer and only reacts with what it is supposed to react to, you should be able to use less CITROCOAT than Citric Acid in most tablet formulations. Of course, this can never be a guaranteed fact since every formulation is different, but it is certainly one of the goals of CITROCOAT N.