Dicalcium Phosphate (DCP)

About This Product

Dicalcium phosphate is calcium hydrogen phosphate, formula CaHPO4, supplied as the anhydrous salt or the dihydrate, with CAS number 7757-93-9 and the European additive number E341(ii). It is a white, odourless, practically water-insoluble powder that dissolves readily in dilute acid.

Its insolubility is the functional point rather than a drawback. As a leavening acid it reacts with sodium bicarbonate only slowly at room temperature, because so little of it is in solution at any moment; the reaction accelerates sharply once oven heat raises the temperature. That makes it a slow or double-acting leavening acid, holding most of its gas release back until the batter is in the oven, where the expanding bubbles set into the crumb instead of escaping during mixing and standing. In fortification the same insolubility means it contributes calcium and phosphorus without adding taste, altering pH or affecting product clarity, and it supplies both minerals in roughly the ratio the body uses them. It also functions as an anticaking and free-flow agent in powders.

It is used in baking powder and self-raising flour, in fortified cereals, flour, beverages and nutritional products, in dough conditioning, in tablet manufacture and in animal feed.

Bio Green Foods supplies food-grade dicalcium phosphate to specification on assay, calcium and phosphorus content, loss on ignition, fluoride, arsenic and heavy metals.