Magnesium ascorbate and Calcium ascorbate

Mag­ne­sium ascor­bate and cal­ci­um ascor­bate can help to strength­en the human immune sys­tem. To coun­ter­act a lack of vit­a­mins and min­er­als, con­sumers are increas­ing­ly turn­ing to food sup­ple­ments, espe­cial­ly at the start of fall and win­ter. One of the best-known vit­a­mins in demand by con­sumers at this time is vit­a­min C.

Mag­ne­sium ascor­bate and cal­ci­um ascor­bate are two forms of vit­a­min C used in var­i­ous appli­ca­tions in the food and health indus­try. Both are known for their antiox­i­dant effects and their role in sup­port­ing the immune sys­tem. In detail, these two raw mate­ri­als are the salts of L-(+)-ascorbic acid, which are iden­ti­cal in their effect and per­fect­ly suit­ed for use in food supplements.

What is the origin of magnesium ascorbate and calcium ascorbate?

The indus­tri­al pro­duc­tion of ascor­bic acid, the main com­po­nent of mag­ne­sium and cal­ci­um ascor­bate, is usu­al­ly car­ried out by fer­men­ta­tion using microor­gan­isms. A mag­ne­sium or cal­ci­um source is then allowed to react with the ascor­bic acid, result­ing in mag­ne­sium or cal­ci­um ascorbate.

What is magnesium ascorbate?

Mag­ne­sium ascor­bate is a so-called buffered form of vit­a­min C, which is par­tic­u­lar­ly suit­able for peo­ple who have a poor­er abil­i­ty to tol­er­ate pure ascor­bic acid. Mag­ne­sium ascor­bate is less acidic than ascor­bic acid, and there­fore caus­es vir­tu­al­ly no gas­troin­testi­nal com­plaints. In Europe, mag­ne­sium ascor­bate is only approved as a source of min­er­als and vit­a­mins in food sup­ple­ments. Mag­ne­sium ascor­bate may not be used in food prod­ucts in Europe.

What is calcium ascorbate?

Cal­ci­um ascor­bate is the cal­ci­um salt of ascor­bic acid. It is sim­i­lar to mag­ne­sium ascor­bate and is also a buffered form of vit­a­min C. In addi­tion to being approved as a source of vit­a­mins and min­er­als in food sup­ple­ments, cal­ci­um ascor­bate may also be used to for­ti­fy foods with vit­a­min C. It is also used in the food indus­try as food addi­tive E 302. Cal­ci­um ascor­bate may not be used to for­ti­fy foods with calcium.

What is the difference between magnesium ascorbate and calcium ascorbate?

Although both mag­ne­sium ascor­bate and cal­ci­um ascor­bate are forms of vit­a­min C, they dif­fer in their chem­i­cal struc­ture. How­ev­er, they are quite sim­i­lar in terms of their health prop­er­ties: both are a source of vit­a­min C, both are gen­tle on the stom­ach, both can be used in the food sup­ple­ment indus­try and both add a min­er­al com­po­nent to a prod­uct formulation.