The Basics About Acid Levels in Food

Acid is an important component of many foods, contributing to human safety as well as desirable flavor. The usual measure of acid level in a food is pH, defined as the negative logarithm of the concentration of hydrogen ions, expressed as gram equivalents per kilogram (essentially, molar concentration). A value of 7 indicates neutrality and is found for pure water. Lower values indicate acidity, and higher values than 7 indicate basicity. The scale runs from 0 to 14. Few foods have values much a…