Edible clay

The Indians of the Peruvian Altiplano eat potatoes with a dip of clay and a mustard-like herb. They say the clay removes the bitter taste and prevents stomach pains or vomiting after eating large amounts of potatoes. The people who eat clay intend detoxication. This may explain how Indians started to utilize and domesticate wild potatoes. Indeed, experiments have shown that four different types of edible clay adsorb the glycoalkaloid tomatine under simulated... 

Iwuagwu MA, Jideonwo A. Preliminary investigations into the in-vitro interaction of folic acid with magnesium trisilicate and edible clay. Int J Pharm 1990 65 63-67. 

Adsorbents. Acid activated clays have been widely used to treat mineral, vegetable, and animal oils. The primary objective of such treatment is decolorization and, at least in the case of edible oil, to remove components that contribute to off-tastes. Typically the oil is filtered through a granular clay product or treated with finely ground clay and subsequendy filtered. 

Clays (acid-treated and Treatment of edible oils pillared) removal of organic pigments ... 

The discovery of the use of fire was the first great step leading toward modern chemistry. Fire made it possible to turn raw foodstuffs into edible meals, to bake shaped clay into pottery, to make glass, to drive metals out of their ores. 

Although arsenic is very widely distributed in the environment, humans are exposed to low levels of this element. Although human exposure to arsenic can come through food, water, and air, the largest source of arsenic intake (approximately 25-50 11.g/clay) is from food. Some edible fish and shellfish do contain elevated levels of arsenic, but this is predominantly in an organic form ( fish arsenic ). Humans are exposed to levels of arsenic in different situations.22 For instance ... 

The average wastewater production for per 100 lb of cmde oil processed is 14.1 lb. The total amount of wastewater produced by the U.S. edible oil industry on a yearly basis (based on 1993 production data) is 23.02 million gallons. In addition, currently 106,890 tons of used bleaching clay is disposed of The disposal sites for this kind of sohd waste is limited. The used bleaching clay is regularly trucked to the disposal site. 

These are often referred to as clay/organic complexes and have been around since at least biblical times. During this period, clays were used to decolorize edible... 

One waste edible oil (WDO-1) was collected from fast food restaurant, the other (WDO-2) was obtained from local restaurant waste oil pool and pretreated with activated clay. The refined com oil (RCO) was purchased from local supermarket. Novozym 435 (lipase B from Candida antarctica, 164 U/g, lunit corresponds to the amount of enzyme that produces 1 pmol methyl oleate from triolein per minute at 35 °C) was kindly donated by Novo Nordisk Co. (Denmark). Methyl palmitate, methyl stearate, methyl oleate, methyl linoleate, methyl linolenate and methyl heptadecanoate (as an internal standard) were purchased from Sigma (USA). All other chemicals were also obtained commercially and of analytical grade. 

Edible oils are not bleached chemically because the color reduction occurs because of oxidizing reactions that have an undesirable effect on the flavor and oxidative stability of the oil (Sipos Szuhaj, 1996). The effective agents for edible-oil bleaching are natural clays, activated earths, carbon, and synthetic silicates (see detailed descriptions... 

Plant oils are produced from natural materials however, they have seldom been used for industrial purposes except as edible oils. In order to use plant oils more effectively, their use in clay nanocomposites has been discussed [50]. 

Chitosan, a natural polymer derived from chitin, has application in edible coatings or films for packaging foodstuffs, but its use is limited by its high sensitivity to moisture. Its ability to form a water barrier can be improved by blending with a more hydrophobic polymer also derived from natural resources, such as PLA. Blends of starch with PCL can be reinforced with nanoscale platelets derived from smectic clay to significantly increase film ductility and barrier properties. 

Richardson, Louise 1.(1950). Use of bleaching clay s in processing edible oils. W Century Building, Los Alamos, CA 90045. 

Polymeric resins are used increasing use in potable water purification, because for some organics they can remove to lower concentration levels than activated carbon does. Acid-treated clays and pillared clays are used for treatments of edible and mineral oils. 

Another, similar, application of activated carbons is in the treatment of edible oils and fats to remove undesirable components. Here, they are used in conjunction with certain bleaching clays. Activated carbon are also used in treating wines and spirits to remove any traces of fusel oil. In the production of brandies, they are used to remove undesirable flavours and to reduce the amount of aldehydes in the raw distillate. In the case of beers, activated carbons are used to improve their colour, and to remove flavours attributed to phenol and colouring matter. 

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