Potassium Carbonate
What it does
Acidity regulator, raising agent.
How it's made
Manufactured.
Potassium carbonate is an alkaline salt (historically called "potash" or "pearl ash") used in food to regulate acidity, as a raising agent, and in specialist roles such as making the dough for certain noodles and gingerbreads and processing cocoa. It neutralises acids and raises pH where a food needs to be made less sour.
Industrially it is made from potassium chloride, a mined mineral. A common route passes carbon dioxide and ammonia through a potassium chloride solution to form potassium bicarbonate, which is then heated to drive off carbon dioxide and water and leave potassium carbonate. Another established method reacts potassium hydroxide with carbon dioxide.
The resulting salt is purified and dried into a white, strongly water-absorbing powder. Food-grade potassium carbonate is refined to remove impurities from the mineral starting material, giving a consistent alkaline ingredient suitable for the precise pH adjustments required in baking and food processing.
Possible reactions
Generally safe.