CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF

FOOD
Presented by group 4

MEMBERS

SSEMUYABA HENRY BELIGA 18/U/15116/PS 1800715116

NALUMAGA SHARON VICTORIOUS 18/U/43087 1800743087

NIWAGABA IVAN 18/U/18123 1800718123

ATEGEKA PAULINE 18/U/15114/PS 1800715114

APIO ROBINAH LETICIA 18/U/15112/PS 1800715112

 CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF
FOOD
• Chemical properties of food are those properties that cannot be measured without altering
the chemical composition of the food material. For example, measuring the water content of
food require that the water is removed, which ultimately changes its chemical makeup.

• Chemically, foods are composed mainly of water, lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates with
small proportions of minerals and organic compounds. Minerals are salts, and organic
substances are vitamins, emulsifiers, acids, antioxidants, pigments, polyphenols, flavors, etc.
• They largely divided into two groups
biochemical properties
Physicochemical properties
 BIOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES
• Common chemical properties analyzed in foods include the following:

pH - Acidity.

Fat and oil quality.

Fat content.

Protein analysis.

Carbohydrates analysis
 PH
• A measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions (ie acidity) in a solution.
• pH value – measure of the pH of a solution expressed as a number on a scale from 0 to 14.

• The pH is an indicator of the amount of acid or base present in a food.

• For canned foods, a pH of 4.6 or lower would prevent microorganisms such as Clostridium
botulinum to grow if proper sterilization time and temperature are used.
• The pH also affects flavor, color and texture
• The pH is measured using a pH meter.
THE PH METER
 HOW PH IS MEASURED.
• Press the ON/OFF key
• Remove the probe from the storage solution and rinse the electrode thoroughly with
deionized water to remove salt deposits.
• Blot dry with clean tissue.
• Place the probe into the food sample or apply to the solid surface of the food ensuring full
contact with the flat probe end.
• Wait for the reading to settle before recording the result.
• The machine automatically displays the result.
• Rinse the probe with deionized water before continuing with the next sample.
Note: The pH electrode should be returned to the storage solution after use and the pH
meter should be switched off at the end of each day.
 HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF THE PH
RANGE FOR DIFFERENT FOOD PRODUCTS.
pH for Various Food Products

Description pH Range Example of Products

Alkaline 7.0-9.6 Egg white

Neutral 7.0-6.5 Milk, chicken

Low Acid 6.5-5.3 Bacon, canned vegetables, fresh meat

Canned soup, soft cheese, pickled
Medium Acid 5.3-4.5
cucumbers
Acid 4.5-3.7 Mayonnaise, yogurt, orange juice

High Acid <3.7 Pickles, canned sauerkraut

The pH scale ranges from 0-14. A pH of 0 is extremely acid. A pH of 14 is extremely alkaline.

 IMPORTANCE OF PH IN FOODS
• Monitoring the pH of foods during production may be a vital step in producing a safe, high
quality food.
• Proper pH range is often essential in many of the physical and chemical reactions that take
place during food processing. For example, pH control is required to ensure proper gel
formation in jelly making.
• The correct pH is also needed to achieve successful fermentations in the production of many
cheeses, pickles and other foods.
• Change in pH, i.e. a drop in pH, is indeed one of the preservation factors in some fermented
sausages and mould ripened cheeses.
 FAT AND OIL QUALITY
• Fats and oils are triesters of glycerol and higher fatty acids.
• At ordinary temperatures, oils are liquids while fats are solids
• Fat and oil quality depends on the composition of the product, size of the product, type of
processing and type of oil used.
• Higher fat products are more susceptible to rancidity.
• This defect is defined as the amount of free radicals that can cause an off-odor or off-flavor
in foods.
• Rancidity is measured by the peroxide value, TBA test, Schaal test, or smoke point.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF EDIBLE
FATS AND OILS
• The physical characteristics of edible fats and oils include:
color cogeal point
specific gravity smoke point
relative index flash point
melting point fire point and viscosity

• The chemical characteristics include:

Acid value
Saponification value
Iodine value
Fatty acid composition etc.
 HOW TO TEST FOR FATS AND
OILS IN FOOD?
• There are many ways of determining the presence of fats and oils in food and one is
described below.
The acrolein test
• Fats and oils when heated with some crystals of potassium bisulfite KHSO4 in a test tube.
• A pungent irritating odor or smell of acrolein confirms the presence of fat or oil.
• The chemical reaction is given below.

• Note: If there is a pungent irritating odor then the presence of fats or oil is confirmed.
 IMPORTANCE OF FATS AND OILS
IN FOOD
• You need a small amount of fat in your diet for healthy functioning
• Source of calories and help the body absorb fat-soluble vitamins e.g A, D, E and K.
in cooking
• The major function of cooking oil is in frying – it contributes flavour and texture to food.
 FAT CONTENT
• Fats are also known as lipids
• They are mainly present in the form called “triglycerides”
• The difference between dietary fats lies in their chemical structure.
they are:-
1. Saturated fats – atoms are totally covered or saturated with hydrogen bonds – solids at
room temperature.
2. Unsaturated fats – fewer atoms are bonded – liquid at room temperature
 SATURATED FATS
• A diet rich in saturated fat can drive up your total cholesterol which may result in blockages
in arteries in heart and other body parts
• Examples of saturated fat food sources
Red meat like beef, lamb, and pork.
Skin-on chicken and other poultry
Whole milk products like milk, cheese and ice cream
Butter
Eggs
Palm and coconut oils
 UNSATURATED FATS
• They come mainly from vegetables, nuts, and fish.
• Its recommended that you eat these fats in place of saturated and trans fats.
• These come in two forms:
Monounsaturated fats – have one unsaturated chemical bond,
- They are liquid at room temperature but solidify when you refrigerate them.
Examples are:
1. Avocado
2. olive, canola,and peanut oils
3. Almonds, hazelnuts, pecans and other nuts
 UNSATURATED FATS
• Polyunsaturated fats – have many unsaturated chemical bonds.
- these stay liquid even when refrigerated
Examples of foods
 Flaxseed, corn, soybean, and sunflower oil
 Walnuts
 Salmon, tuna, and other fatty fish
 TRANS FATS
• Small amounts of trans fats happen naturally in animal-based foods like meat and milk.
• Most of these are made in the industrial processes
• Companies add hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them solid at room temperature so foods last
longer.
• It also gives them a satisfying taste and texture.
Examples
 French fries and other fried foods
 Cakes, pies, biscuits, cookies, crackers, doughnuts, and other baked goods
 Stick or tub margarines
 Microwave popcorn
 Frozen pizza
 TESTS USED TO ANALYZE FAT IN
FOOD
• There are two common methods as listed:
gas chromatograph (GC) method
solvent extraction-gravimetric method
in addition base hydrolysis is used typically for dairy matrices

The gravimetric method

The acid-hydrolysis
The acid-hydrolysis method extracts fat from the samplre by subjecting it to hydrochloric acid
and mixed ethers.
 THE GRAVIMETRIC METHOD
THE ACID-HYDROLYSIS STEPS
• The hydrochloric acid breaks fatty acids from the glycerides, glycolipids and sterol esters.
• Acid hydrolysis also breaks lipid-carbohydrate bonds assists in hydrolyzing of proteins
and polysaccharides and disrupts the cell wall.
• All of this makes the lipids available for complete extraction with mixed ethers.
• The ether is evaporated and the extracted residue weighed.
 FUNCTIONS OF FAT IN THE DIET.
Storing energy
Insulating and protecting
Regulating and signaling
Aiding absorption and increasing bioavailability
Contributing to the smell, taste, and satiety of foods
Providing essential fatty acids
Attributions
 PROTEIN ANALYSIS
• A protein is a naturally occurring, extremely complex substance that consists of amino acid
residues joined by peptide bonds.
• They are present in all living organisms and include many essentisl biological compounds
such as enzymes, hormones, antibodies.
 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF PROTEIN
MEASUREMENT
ENHANCED DUMAS METHOD
• A sample of known mass is combusted in a high temperature (about 900 oC) chamber in the
presence of oxygen.
• This leads to the release of CO2, H2O and N2.
• The CO2 and H2O are removed by passing the gasses over special columns that absorb
them.
• The nitrogen content is then measured by passing the remaining gasses through a column
that has a thermal conductivity detector at the end.
• The column helps separate the nitrogen from any residual CO2 and H2O that may have
remained in the gas stream.
 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF
PROTEIN MEASUREMENT
• The instrument is calibrated by analyzing a material that is pure and has
a known nitrogen concentration, such as EDTA (= 9.59%N).
• Thus the signal from the thermal conductivity detector can be converted
into a nitrogen content.
• As with the Kjeldahl method it is necessary to convert the concentration
of nitrogen in a sample to the protein content, using suitable conversion
factors which depend on the precise amino acid sequence of the protein.
KJELDAHL INSTRUMENT PIC
 IMPORTANCE OF PROTEINS IN
INDUSTRY
• They are renewable raw materials which contribute to creation of biobased, sustainable
economy.
• Proteins are used in industries in form of enzymes. (food, textile, and detergent industries)
• Proteins provide food with structure and texture and enables water retention.
• They do their work in cells and are required for the structure, function and regulation of the
body tissues and organs
 CARBOHYDRATES ANALYSIS
• Carbohydrates are the sugars, starches, and fibres found in fruits, grains, vegetables and milk
products.
• sugars - simple carbohydrates (basic form)
• Starches – complex carbohydrates –made of lots of simple sugars strung together
• Fiber – complex carbohydrates
 Methods of Analysis
• A large number of analytical techniques have been developed to measure the total
concentration and type of carbohydrates present in foods

• The carbohydrate content of a food can be determined by calculating the percent remaining
after all the other components have been measured:

%carbohydrates = 100 - %moisture - %protein - %lipid - %mineral.

• Nevertheless, this method can lead to erroneous results due to experimental errors in any of
the other methods, and so it is usually better to directly measure the carbohydrate content for
accurate measurements.
 IMPORTANCE OF CARBOHYDRATES IN
FOOD INDUSTRY
• Fast-releasing and slow-releasing carbohydrates are utilized to give foods a wide spectrum
of functional attributes including:
• Increased sweetness, viscosity, bulk, coating ability, solubility, consistency, texture, body
and browning capacity.
• The differences in chemical structure between different carbohydrates confer varied
functional uses in foods. Starches, gums, and pectins are used as thickening agents in
making jams, cookies, noodles etc.
• They have many important industrial uses in such diverse areas as the adhesive, agricultural,
chemical, fermentation, food, paper and related products, petroleum production,
pharmaceutical, and textile industries
 PHYSICOCHEMICAL
PROPERTIES OF FOOD
• The physicochemical properties of food are mainly responsible for the final quality of the
product.

• Moreover, the measurement of these properties is important for design and quality control
during the processing of the food.
 VARIOUS PROPERTIES THAT FALL UNDER
PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES
• Moisture content
• Pigments
• Enzymes
• Water activity
 MOISTURE CONTENT
• Moisture content is a measure of the amount of water or water vapor contained within a
food substance.
• moisture content is an important test done in the food industry since it may affect spoilage
rates, texture, palatability and product cost.
•  For example, high moisture content is likely to increase spoilage rates due to higher
chemical and microbial activity. 

•  Lack of water can cause such textures as, hardness, crumbliness, and gumminess where they
are not desired, or may provide improved palate-enhancing textures such as tenderness,
softness and smoothness.
 DETERMINATION OF MOISTURE
CONTENT
• Moisture content is generally determined using a convection oven or a rapid moisture
analyzer.
• They essentially follow the same principle. That is, the food is heated and moisture is
removed, creating a weight difference between the initial and final sample.
• Different formulae can be used for its determination as seen below
CONTIUATION
VIEW OF OF CONVENTION OVEN
 IMPORTANCE OF MOISTURE
CONTENT IN INDUSTRY
• Food quality measurements
• Determination of food shelf life
• Legal and labeling requirements
• Establishing dry weight of food
• Determining yield
• Confirming the end of a drying process
 PIGMENTS
• Pigments are the compounds in food that gives them their color.
• For example, vegetables are green due to the presence of chlorophyll.
• Apart from green, food comes in all the colors of the rainbow. Each of these colors is due to
a pigment or the combination of pigments in the food.
 MEASURING PIGMENT
• These pigments are generally measured by determining the amount and wavelength of
light that they absorb.
• This is best done by separating them from one another by extraction with solvents and then
chromatographing the extracts.
 IMPORTANCE OF PIGMENTS IN
FOOD INDUSTRY
• Red foods such as tomatoes, pink grapefruit, watermelon and papaya are rich in the
antioxidant Lycopene which is effective at quenching the free radicals that can damage cell
membranes.
• Dark green foods such as spinach and cabbage contain lutein, another free-radical-quenching
carotenoid antioxidant, that’s especially important for skin and eye health. Lutein is also
present in the yolks of eggs.
 ENZYMES
• Enzyme, a substance that acts as a catalyst in living organisms,.

• Enzymes accelerate chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes act are called
substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as
products.
 DETERMINATION OF ENZYME
ACTIVITY
• Enzyme activity = moles of substrate converted per unit time = rate × reaction volume. Enzyme
activity is a measure of the quantity of active enzyme present
• The SI unit is the katal, 1 katal = 1 mol s−1, but this is an excessively large unit. A more
practical and commonly used value is enzyme unit (U) = 1 μmol min−1.

• Enzyme activity as given in katal generally refers to that of the assumed natural target substrate
of the enzyme.
• Enzyme activity can also be given as that of certain standardized substrates, such as gelatin,
then measured in gelatin digesting units (GDU), or milk proteins, then measured in milk
clotting units (MCU). The units GDU and MCU are based on how fast one gram of the enzyme
will digest gelatin or milk proteins, respectively. 1 GDU equals approximately 1.5 MCU
 IMPORTANCE OF ENZYMES
• Enzymes also have valuable industrial and medical applications these include;
• The fermenting of wine,
• leavening of bread
• curdling of cheese, and brewing of beer. Though these have been practiced from earliest
times,
• Enzymes importance in industrial processes has been increasingly involved in organic
chemical reactions. That is ,
• use of enzymes in medicine for killing disease-causing microorganisms, promoting
wound healing, and diagnosing certain diseases.
 WATER ACTIVITY
• Water activity refers to how available water is in a food material.
• Water can either be in a bound state or a free form. If free, it is readily available to take part
in chemical reactions or supply microorganisms with food to grow.
• Water activity ranges from 0 to 1 where 0 means no free water (bone dry) and 1 means
maximum free water (pure water).
 WATER ACTIVITY
DETERMINATION
• Water activity is a thermodynamic measure of water expressed as the vapor pressure of water in a
sample divided by vapor pressure of pure water at a given temperature.
• The more unbound water we have the more likelihood we have of microbial spoilage. Water
Activity (aw) Meters measure the unbound water vapor pressures to determine microbial
spoilage, chemical and physical stability. 
• water activity can be calculated from,
 IMPORTANCE OF WATER
ACTIVITY
• Water activity controls the microbial and chemical activities responsible for food stability, Food
quality, and safety that is preservation from spoilage
•
Water activity affects the textural properties of food. Foods with high water activity have a
texture that is described as moist, juicy and tender

When the water activity of these products is lowered, undesirable textural attributes such as
hardness, dryness, staleness and toughness are observed.

Water activity is widely used to predict the stability of food with respect to the potential for
growth of micro-organisms and also some for the physical, chemical and enzymatic changes
that lead to deterioration.
• More properties under physicochemical include;
• Foam formation. The formation of foam depends on the presence of a foaming agent in the
continuous phase prior to dispersion of gas. The foaming agent is absorbed to reduce
surface tension and resist the coalescence of bubbles. Typical foams include whipped cream,
ice-cream, cake mix, meringue, and the froth on beer. Low density and a thin walled turbid
structure are essential to yield a fluffy product.
• most commonly used surface cleaning in the food-processing industries
• Emulsifying Agent. An emulsifying agent is made up of two parts. One is hydrophilic
(water loving) and the other is hydrophobic (water hating). The emulsifier holds the disperse
phase within the continuous phase. This results in the emulsion becoming stable.
• Mayonnaise is an example of a stable emulsion of oil and vinegar, when egg yolk (lecithin)
may be used as an emulsifying agent. Stabilizers are often added to emulsions to increase the
viscosity of the product. These help improve the stability of the emulsion
THE END