Calcium Chloride question

[Always_a_3rd]

I got my sample of alginate, all I needed was some calcium chloride to make "ravioli", "caviar" etc. Stopped at a compounding pharmacy asked for Calcium chloride, got some, but was told not to ingest it as it could inflame mucus membranes? Anyone have a response, it is labeled Calcium Chloride USP.

[K8memphis]

Just the obvious, you need food grade stuff. I got mine from www.willpowder.net. But I just dropped my spheres and stuff in the calcium chloride solution, I didn't eat it. It just tastes salty. But still I would only use the food grade stuff.

[cats2]

If it's labeled CaCl2 USP, the USP stands for United States Pharmacopeia. So if it's pharmaceutical grade, then it's intended to be used in the body in some fashion or another. I'd say that's equivalent to food grade.

This is what I found on the Dow Chemical site: "Calcium chloride was evaluated to be a food substance of very low toxicity. In fact, the substance is considered as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The average intake of calcium chloride as food additives has been estimated to be 160-345 mg/day for individuals. However, ingestion of concentrated or pure calcium chloride products may cause gastrointestinal irritation or ulceration . "

So, as long as you're not ingesting this straight from the bottle, I think you'll be fine! You're using it as a solution, and at that, will probably rinse your products with water, right?

[Always_a_3rd]

Exactly, I figured that its going to be washed off anyway, and it's like 5 g per 500ml water or something like that, just wanted to be sure everyone is on the same page. Memories of the Simpsons Ralph Wiggum "Tastes like Burning..."

[Dave the Cook]

I think the usual solution is 6.5 grams per liter of water. But just to be clear: if you're using something with a significant calcium content -- yogurt, sour cream or the like -- you can use reverse spherification. Instead of doing the alginate mixing step first, just drop the material straight into the alginate, leaving out the CaCl2 altogether.