EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid)

Sequestrant and antioxidant added to foods, body care, and household products. It occurs as disodium calcium EDTA, tetrasodium EDTA, and disodium dihydrogen EDTA. As a sequestrant, it binds trace minerals such as copper, iron and nickel that may be in the product. If not inactivated, these minerals will lead to discoloration, rancidity and textural breakdown. When added as an antioxidant, EDTA prevents oxygen from causing color changes and rancidity.

EDTA as a Food Additive/Preservative
sequestering metals, preventing discoloration in food products,preventing flavor changes in milk, inhibiting the thickening of stored condensed milk, enhancing the foaming properties, preserving canned legume, preventing gushing in beer, promoting flavor retention and delaying loss of carbonation in soft drinks, preventing oxidation of meat products, and preventing discoloration of canned fruits and vegetables.

EDTA-Body Care, Household Products,Pharmaceuticals
EDTA is often added to detergents, liquid soaps, shampoos, agricultural chemical sprays, pharmaceutical products, oil emulsions and to textiles to improve dyeing, scouring and detergent operations. It is used as a metal chelating agent, in metal cleaning and plating, in the treatment of chlorosis, to decontaminate radioactive surfaces,a metal deactivator in vegetable oils,anticoagulant of blood,as an antioxidant, in the clarification of liquids, in analytical chemistry spectrophotometric titration, to aid in reducing blood cholesterol, to treat lead poisoning and calcinosis.EDTA salts are also added to products in the place of phosphate compounds used to reduce calcium and magnesium hardness in water. It can prevent bleaching agents from becoming active before they're immersed in water.

The EDTA molecule acts as an anticoagulant in medical and laboratory equipment. It is only used in tubes of blood and medical machinery since it “chelates” all the calcium contained in blood. Even dentists use this compound as a root canal irritant in removing organic and inorganic debris compounds.

Present day industrial use: as an additive and food preservative and to remove unwanted metals that get into foods from the soil and machinery during harvesting and processing. EDTA reacts with these elements by forming tightly bound complexes to prevent decomposition