Ethanol
What it does
Solvent/carrier for flavours.
How it's made
Fermentation of sugars.
Ethanol — ordinary drinking alcohol — is used in food manufacturing chiefly as a carrier and solvent for flavourings, colours and extracts (such as vanilla extract), and it evaporates readily to leave the flavour behind. It also has a preservative effect at higher concentrations.
Food-grade ethanol is produced by fermentation: yeasts convert sugars from crops such as grain, sugar cane, sugar beet or fruit into alcohol and carbon dioxide, exactly as in brewing and winemaking. The dilute alcohol produced is then concentrated by distillation, which uses the difference in boiling points to separate ethanol from water.
Repeated or careful distillation and treatment give a high-purity, food-grade spirit. When used as a carrier in flavour and colour preparations, the ethanol is typically present in small amounts and much of it evaporates during processing or cooking, leaving the dissolved flavour or colour in the food.
Possible reactions
Alcohol — relevant for those avoiding it.