Trickle aid
Flow aids (also flow aids , flow enhancers or anti-agglomeration agents ) are separating agents that are added to crystalline substances in order to prevent the individual crystals from clumping together, primarily for the purpose of better machine usability. Their use is intended to prevent, for example, sodium chloride ( table salt , rock salt , sea salt ) from clumping together before or during processing, making it difficult to dose.
salt
Some flow aids are approved as food additives for table salt :
- Calcium carbonate (E 170, CaCO 3 , chalk) and magnesium carbonate (E 504, MgCO 3 , magnesia) are naturally occurring and harmless minerals.
- Sodium hexacyanoferrate (E 535) and potassium hexacyanoferrate (E 536) are often used as cheap flow aids in cheaper salts. In the EU organic regulation , the addition of sodium and potassium hexacyanoferrate is excluded, calcium and magnesium carbonate may be used.
- Aluminum silicates (E 559, kaolin) and aluminum hydroxide (Al (OH) 3 ) are further approved flow aids.
- Silicon dioxide (SiO 2 , declared as E551 or silica) is often used and is chemically unproblematic, even as colloidal silica. However, it gets its physical properties from the particle size in the nanometer range , which is why its use in food is controversial in terms of health. Bio Suisse, for example, ended approval at the beginning of 2019.
Grains of rice are used as home remedies in the salt shaker. These indirectly prevent clumping by absorbing moisture and thus keeping the salt dry.
Technical applications
For technical purposes, fumed silica (trade names: Aerosil, Cabosil, HDK) is often used as a flow aid. Flow aids can be problematic for ion exchangers in dishwashers and should therefore not be added to regeneration salts .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Otto-Albrecht Neumüller (Ed.): Römpps Chemie-Lexikon. Volume 1: A-Cl. 8th revised and expanded edition. Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 3-440-04511-0 , pp. 479-480.
- ↑ http://schrotundkorn.de/ernaehrung/lesen/201305e09.html Nano on the plate? Shot and grain, edition 05.2013.
- ↑ This is new in organic farming 2019. (PDF; 277 KB) In: shop. fibl.org . Bio Suisse , 2018, accessed on January 27, 2019 .