Caramel usually occurs as a dark brown to black liquid or solid. It is a complex mixture of compounds, some of which are in the form of colloidal aggregates.Caramel is manufactured by heating carbohydrates, either alone or in the presence of food-grade acids, alkalies, and/or salts. Caramel is produced from commercially available, food-grade nutritive sweeteners consisting of fructose, dextrose (glucose), invert sugar, sucrose, malt syrup, molasses, and/or starch hydrolysates and fractions thereof. The acids that may be used are food-grade sulfuric, sulfurous, phosphoric, acetic, and citric acids; the alkalies are ammonium, sodium, potassium, and calcium hydroxides; and the salts are ammonium, sodium, and potassium carbonate, bicarbonate, phosphate (including mono- and dibasic), sulfate, and bisulfite. Food-grade antifoaming agents such as polyglycerol esters of fatty acids may be used as processing aids during its manufacture. Caramel is soluble in water.
Four distinct classes of Caramel can be
distinguished by the reactants used in their manufacture and by
specific identification tests:
Class I
(Plain Caramel, Caustic Caramel) Prepared by heating carbohydrates with
or without acids or alkalies; no ammonium or sulfite compounds are used.
Class II (Caustic Sulfite Caramel) Prepared by heating
carbohydrates with or without acids or alkalies in the presence of
sulfite compounds; no ammonium compounds are used.
Class III
(Ammonia Caramel) Prepared by heating carbohydrates with or without
acids or alkalies in the presence of ammonium compounds; no sulfite
compounds are used.
Class IV
(Sulfite Ammonia Caramel) Prepared by heating carbohydrates with or
without acids or alkalies in the presence of both sulfite and ammonium
compounds.
All of these Caramels should meet the criteria established for Caramel in this monograph.
| Function | Color. |
| Ammoniacal Nitrogen(1) | Not more than 0.6%, calculated on an equivalent color basis. |
| Arsenic(2) | Not more than 1 mg/kg |
| Color Intensity(3) | Between 0.01 and 0.6 absorbance units (a.u.) |
| Lead(2) | Not more than 2 mg/kg |
| Mercury(2) | Not more than 0.1 mg/kg |
| 4-Methylimidazole(1) | Not more than 0.025%, calculated on an equivalent color basis. |
| Sulfur Dioxide(1) | Not more than 0.2%, calculated on an equivalent color basis. |
| Total Nitrogen(1) | Not more than 3.3%, calculated on an equivalent color basis. |
| Total Sulfur(1) | Not more than 3.5%, calculated on an equivalent color basis. |
(1) These tests are calculated on an equivalent color basis that permits the values to be expressed in terms of a Caramel having a color intensity standardized to 0.1 a.u.
(2) These tests are calculated on an as-is basis.
(3) Color Intensity is defined as the absorbance of a 0.1% (w/v) solution of Caramel in water measured in a 1-cm cell at 610 nm and is expressed on a Total Solids basis.
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