# Citric acid

The most used food acid, fermented from sugar or glucose by a mould; China makes most of the world's supply and sets the price.

Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/citric_acid/

Bio-based chemicals · Fermentation products · No. 109

- Single chemical
- Feedstock: Crops and biomass
- about 2.5-3 Mt a year (2025, indicative; no official world tonnage published)
- HS 291814
 Bio-based chemicals · Fermentation products · Foundation · Matter

The tang in your fizzy drink comes not from lemons but from a black mould fed on maize sugar.

Chart: Illustration: Citric acid

##### Where it comes from

Chart: Map of where it comes from

A mould, Aspergillus niger, ferments glucose or molasses in giant tanks for 5-10 days, leaving about 1 t of gypsum per tonne of acid.

##### Three things to know

1. Pfizer scaled up mould fermentation in the 1920s and 1930s, ending reliance on Italian lemons.
2. Each tonne of citric acid needs roughly 1.1-1.3 t of sugar or glucose.
3. The EU and US have held anti-dumping duties on Chinese citric acid since 2008-2009, splitting the world into price zones.

##### The journey

1. 1 **Crop**Maize, cassava or cane and beet molasses
2. 2 **Sugar prep**Starch hydrolysed to glucose, molasses diluted
3. 3 **Fermentation**Aspergillus niger works for 5-10 days
4. 4 **Recovery**Lime and sulphuric acid, leaving gypsum
5. 5 **Crystals**Sold as powder or citrate salts
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##### Go deeper pick a tab to open it in full

## Other sections

- [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/citric_acid/overview/index.md)
- [Correlation](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/citric_acid/correlation/index.md)
- [Production route](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/citric_acid/routes/index.md)
- [Production](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/citric_acid/production/index.md)
- [Feedstocks](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/citric_acid/feedstocks/index.md)
- [Cycles](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/citric_acid/cycles/index.md)
- [Trading](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/citric_acid/trading/index.md)
- [Movement](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/citric_acid/movement/index.md)
- [Regulation](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/citric_acid/regulation/index.md)
- [Characteristics](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/citric_acid/characteristics/index.md)
- [Emissions](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/citric_acid/emissions/index.md)
- [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/citric_acid/links/index.md)