Ascorbic Acid

Ascorbic acid is a monosaccharide derivative and is similar to other six-carbon monosaccharides.
It consists of colorless, white, rectangular crystals.
It has a very mild pleasant odor.

Ascorbic acid is used as an antioxidant due to its oxygen-scavenging property. It is used to preserve fats and fatty foods for long periods and to prevent the browning of white vegetables and fruits.
Additionally, quickly cooled frozen fruits lose their natural color and aroma during thawing.
Adding pure ascorbic acid before freezing can prevent these drawbacks.
Oxygen is captured by ascorbic acid before it can cause undesirable changes.
Thus, in frozen fruits such as apricots, peaches, apples, grapes, bananas, pears, and pineapples, ascorbic acid has been preferred as an antioxidant for over 25 years and is widely used in the food industry.
The synthetic isomer erythorbic acid, which differs only in the configuration of the side chain hydroxyl group, is also a strong antioxidant but, on the contrary, has very little vitamin activity. Nevertheless, it occurs naturally and replaces ascorbate in certain fungi.
Furthermore, ascorbic acid is used in many preparations to enrich foods and beverages with vitamins.