Sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) is an alkaline salt that will raise the pH of meats and seafood, enough to increase their water-holding capacity.

The major food uses of food‐grade phosphates include chemical leavening of cakes, cookies, pancakes, waffles, and doughnuts; maintaining the structure and hydration of meat, poultry, and seafood products (muscle foods); use as a protein dispersant in evaporated and spray‐dried milk products; use for either flavor or added minerals in beverages; and maintaining the natural structure of some canned fruit and vegetable products.

Depending upon the application, phosphates may function as buffers, sequestrants, acidulants, bases, flavors, cryoprotectants, gel accelerants, dispersants, nutrients, precipitants, and as free‐flow or ion‐exchange agents.

Uses / Applications

* Culinary Uses

STPP is used as a preservative for poultry, meat, and seafood.

It is also added, along with other sodium polyphosphates, to processed cheeses as an emulsifier.

The polyphosphates are negatively charged chains of phosphorus and oxygen that attract water molecules.

When added to the cheese, they remove calcium from casein matrix and also bind themselves to the casein while bringing moisture with them.

The effect is that the polyphosphates loosen the protein matrix helping keep the mixture emulsified and ensure even melting.

This applies to other uses such as force-meats: STPP will help prevent the poultry, fish, or meat from becoming greasy and falling apart during heating.

* Chemical leavening

The major use of phosphates in cereal and grain products is the chemical leavening of cakes, cookies, muffins, doughnuts, crackers, biscuits, battered and breaded foods, pancakes, and waffles.