What Is Ash & What Foods Can I Find It In?
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Ash is an inorganic material, used to describe the non-combustible elements left over after heating or when your body burns up the food you eat.
It’s not added to foods.
Ash can include both compounds with essential minerals, such as calcium and potassium, and toxic materials, such as mercury.
There are several different methods that can be used to determine the ash content of a food.
Table of Contents
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Ash Is Residue
Ash refers to any inorganic material, such as minerals, present in food.
It is called ash because it is the residue that remains after heating. When water and organic material such as fat and protein have been removed. (source ◳)
Ash can include both compounds with essential minerals, such as calcium and potassium, and toxic materials, such as mercury.
Ash Is Not Added To Foods
Ash is not something that is added to foods. Ash represents the total mineral content in foods.
Determining the ash content may be important for several reasons.
It is part of proximate analysis for nutritional evaluation, and it is an important quality attribute for some food ingredients.
Also, ashing is the first step in the preparation of a sample for specific elemental analysis. (source ◳)
Ash contents of fresh foods rarely exceed 5%.
But some processed foods can have ash contents as high as 12%, for instance, dried beef.
Ash on the food label
Ash is not added to food as an ingredient but is still listed on the food label.
It is recorded on the label as an indicator of mineral content.
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Methods Of Ash Determination In Foods
There are several analytical methods available for the determination of the total ash content in food. Below you will find three different methods of how ash is determined in foods.
The gravimetric methods
The gravimetric method is the most commonly used method for the determination of total ash content in food.
The main advantage of this method is the high precision.
The main disadvantage of the method is that it is time consuming and requires the use of an analytical balance with high precision.
The heating furnace method
In the heating furnace method, the sample is heated in a furnace at a temperature of approximately 600 °C.
The ash content of the sample is determined by comparing the weight of the sample before and after combustion.
This method is best for the determination of ash content in dry foods such as cereals and nuts.
The pyrolytic method
The pyrolytic method is based on the fact that the ash content of a sample can be determined by comparing the weight of the sample before and after combustion.
This method works best for the determination of ash content in food samples that contain water, like meats and beverages.
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Foods You Can Find Ash In
You find Ash mostly in spices and herbs, sweets, baked goods, sauces and gravy products.
Examples of food sources include
Foods in our nutrition tool
You can access regularly updated, top ranked lists of foods for over 200+ nutrients in our nutrition tool.
If you are interested in what foods contain the most of ash, we recommend you use our tool.
Here's our top ranked list of foods that contain ash.