Mechanism of Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC) in Wine

Mechanism of Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC) in Wine

The use of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) in wine


After fermentation, wine needs to be clarified and stabilized before being bottled for sale. It can be said that the product quality of wine is almost determined by this process. The stability during production, storage, and bottling is mainly caused by two factors.


One is the biological instability caused by microbial activity; the other is the non-biological instability caused by non-biological factors, which refers to the physical and chemical changes of components such as tartaric acid salts, proteins, pigments, and heavy metal ions without the influence of external environment or internal factors. Under the action of microorganisms, wine can appear light loss, turbidity, precipitation and other phenomena, which affect the sensory quality.


Clarity is an important indicator to measure the appearance quality of wine, and wines with turbidity generally have lower taste quality. Therefore, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) is chosen as the wine tartrate stabilizer. The tartrate precipitation mainly consists of potassium hydrogen tartrate and calcium tartrate. The solubility of calcium tartrate basically does not change with temperature, which is the main reason why cold stabilization treatment does not affect it significantly in current production methods.


The stabilization mechanism of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)


The mechanism of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) may be related to maintaining the balance state of wine and keeping the salt equilibrium of tartaric acid salts stable. At the same time, this CMC food additive can form compounds with the tartaric salts that have already formed. For potassium hydrogen tartrate, this compound will exist stably in wine for a long time, while for calcium tartrate, once it is formed, it will precipitate. The unformed calcium salts will maintain equilibrium for a long time and then become stable.


For potassium hydrogen tartrate, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose can make it stable not only because of the above reasons, but also because carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) itself is a poly electrolyte. It not only is an electrolyte, but also has colloid characteristics, and the stability on tartar may also exist in the proportion of the reaction amount. The experiment found that in simulated wine, as the carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) content increased, the precipitation of tartaric acid did not continue to decrease, but changed in a rebound manner, which is the reason. When the temperature decreases, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) shows colloid properties, which can prevent the formation of tartaric acid crystals and ensure the stability of tartar.


The advantages of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) application


Using carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) to stabilize tartar in wine has obvious and lasting effects, and is not affected by factors such as temperature, mechanical impact, and pH value. Adding 200mg/L carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) to wine does not adversely affect its physical and chemical indicators and sensory quality, and as the processing time lengthens, it has an improvement effect on the quality of wine.


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