Citric Acid Citric acid is a strong organic acid, present in relatively large quantities in citrus fruits. It's solid, colorless and very soluble in water. It's Widely used in the beverages industry. mainly as proofreader of acidity and as aromatic mixture. It increases the gelatinous consistence in jams and decreases the enzymatic blackening of fruit and fruit based products. The proofreaders of acidity are employed to modify and check the acidity or alkalinity at an agreed level - important for the industrial workmanship - the taste and the safety of the food. The acidification is a method of maintenance of alimentary products. Besides preventing the development of bacterias, it contributes to preserve the desired quality of the product.

Powdered honey
Honey results from the transformation by honey bees of nectar, flower pollen, and some leaves and branches honeydew such as ash trees, birches, pines, lime-trees.
Honeydew, is derived from the elaboration of plants lymph, sucked by some insects which are able to bore the hard surfaces of barks and leaves using their buccal organs.
Honey consumption (as sweetener for tisanes, drinks or spread on slices of brown bread)is good also for healthy people since it improves intellectual and physical efficiency, strengthens the immune system, quickens recovery after a physical effort.
Besides being used as a sweetener (until 1700 it was the only sweet concentrated substance available in cookery), honey has always been used for its extraordinary healing properties even for external use.

Carnauba wax
The precious Carnauba wax, whose excellent natural characteristics are widely used in many fields, is obtained from the leaves of a palm tree known as Copernica Cerifera.
Thanks to its hardness and its longer lasting brilliance, carnauba wax is most of all appreciated as a constituent for floor wax, but also for bodywork and furniture waxes, shoe polishes, carbon paper inks.
Carnauba wax is also used to finish and polish leather, oilskins and soaps, to harden candles as well as in pencils and pastels manufacturing.
Premium-quality waxes, with no impurities (such as sand, mould, etc), are mainly used in cosmetics.

Gum tragacanth
Gum tragacanth is a natural polysaccharide obtained from "Astragalus" plants, native to the South-East of Europe or the South-West of Asia. It exudes through cuttings on the stem or on the roots. Viscous, odourless, tasteless and insoluble in water, it's mainly used as thickener and emulsifier both in alimentary fields and textile, chemical and pharmaceutical fields.

GUM KARAJA
It's a polysaccharide exuded from the Indian tree "Sterculia".
It presents the same characteristics of gum tragacanth, and has an excellent thickening function.

Substances which extend food conservation period preventing it from deterioration caused by oxidation, such as fat going rancid and colour variations; they are used for:

• drinks
• syrups
• candied fruit
• dried fruit
• marmolades
• ice creams
• lollipops
• confectionery creams
• chewing gum
• vegetables juices
• melted cheese

Thickeners
Substances which improve the viscosity of alimentary products; gelling agents are substances that gives consistency to alimentary products through the formation of a gel, these substances preserve the compactness of products which tend to split into their different components.
They are used for:

• ice creams
• sauces
• sweets
• comfits
• chewing gum
• confectionery creams
• savouries
• toasted seeds
• dried fruit
• puddings

Sweeteners
Sweeteners are able to give sweet taste to alimentary products with no need to use sugar (saccharose).
Usually they have a much higher sweetening power than saccharose and a much lower caloric power.
Sweeteners are used in alimentary an beverage industry and can de divided into 3 categories:

• Natural, such as fructose, dextrose, polyalcohols (sorbitol, xylitol, mannitol), honey, starch syrups;
• Semisynthetic, such as aspartame;
• Synthetic, such as saccahrin, cyclamate, acesulfame.

Synthetic or semisynthetic sweeteners have a more powerful sweetening effect than saccharose and, being employed in small quantities, they give no contribution of energy.
Rathgeb products list provides various alimentary-cosmetic-pharmaceutical ingredients; it would be impossible to present a list of the diverse applications, therefore we invite you to ask us for more details.