Ammonium Bicarbonate is a widely used ingredient in bakery industry because of its leavening and stabilizing properties and acid regulating capacity. A leavening agent, and the forerunner of today's baking powder and baking soda.

Originally made from the ground antlers of reindeer, this is an ancestor of modern baking powder. Northern Europeans still use it because it makes their springerle and gingerbread cookies very light and crisp.

Unfortunately, it can impart an unpleasant ammonia flavor, so it's best used in cookies and pastries that are small enough to allow the ammonia odor to dissipate while baking.

Common Applications

• Cookies

• Crackers

• Pastas

• Frozen dairy products

• Bakery ingredients

• Pigments and paints

• Agriculture

• Fire extinguishers A leavening agent is a substance that releases gas in baked goods to impart a light texture.

Properties

• Ammonium Bicarbonate is an inorganic compound, chemically speaking, it is the bicarbonate salt of the ammonium ion. Thanks to its physicochemical properties this ingredient is used as a leavening and stabilizing agent, and as an acidity regulator.

• The stabilizing property of Ammonium Bicarbonate allows maintaining the ideal physicochemical properties in a food; either preserving a food in a homogeneous state or by maintaining / intensifying a color.

• Besides, it has the property to regulate the pH by controlling or modifying acidity or alkalinity of a food product.

• Finally, as a leavening agent, Ammonium Bicarbonate, alone or in combination with others, has the capability to release gas and, at the same time, increases batter and dough volume for baked goods.

Recommendations

Ammonium Bicarbonate and Sodium Bicarbonate are the most common additives used as leavening agents in the bakery industry because they release carbon dioxide when certain conditions of temperature and humidity are reached.

In general, when Ammonium Bicarbonate is used, it decomposes over 40 °C, releasing CO2, H2O and NH3. Other chemical leavening agents are added in order to avoid any trace of ammonia in the products.

For Ammonium Bicarbonate, an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) is not specified by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), because its use does not represent a risk to food security