Alkalization

Raising a food’s pH above 7 — making it alkaline — to transform texture, colour or flavour. The classic example is Dutching cocoa: treating cocoa with alkali darkens it, softens its acidity and helps it disperse in milk, shifting flavour from bright and fruity to smooth and earthy, at the cost of some flavanol antioxidants. Nixtamalising maize with lime is another ancient application, unlocking niacin and building tortilla texture. As a unit operation, alkalization is the mirror image of acidification: wherever a process needs pH to move upward — doughs, cocoa, cleaning regimes — alkali does the work.