Overview
About Tartaric acid
Tartaric acid (E334) is the grape acid, and unlike most acidulants it really is recovered from winemaking, from the crystalline deposit left behind in the barrel.
It shows up in sherbet and fizzy sweets, jellies, some baking powders and in wine itself as an acidity correction. That wine connection is the reason people search for it, so the useful answer is up front: the things that make wine a trigger are histamine, tyramine and sulphites, and purified tartaric acid carries none of the three.
Sensitivities
How Tartaric acid scores
Watch for
What trips people up
- Being grape-derived does not make it a grape exposure. It is purified to a crystalline acid, so there is no grape protein, no skin polyphenol and none of the amines that build up during fermentation
- Tartrates are poorly absorbed, so gram-level doses draw water into the bowel and act as a mild laxative. That is a real effect of the sherbet-and-bicarbonate style of sweet, and it is dose driven rather than an intolerance
- Its potassium salt, cream of tartar, is a different substance with its own potassium load. Spoonful-sized folk use of cream of tartar has caused dangerously high blood potassium, which matters if your kidneys or your medication already hold potassium back
- Like any concentrated food acid it is hard on enamel when it sits on the teeth, which is the sherbet problem rather than the jelly problem
Diet fit
Where it fits
Swap ideas
More alternatives
FAQ
Common questions about Tartaric acid
If wine triggers me, will tartaric acid too?
Almost certainly not. Wine is a difficult drink for three reasons that have nothing to do with its acid: it is high in histamine, it carries tyramine and other amines from fermentation, and it is preserved with sulphites. Tartaric acid is graded clean on all three here because it is extracted and purified away from that chemistry. If you want to test it, sherbet or a tartaric-acidified soft drink is a much simpler challenge than a glass of red.
Is tartaric acid the same as cream of tartar?
They are related but not interchangeable. Cream of tartar is potassium bitartrate, the potassium salt, and it is a mild acid used to activate baking soda and stabilise egg whites. Tartaric acid is the free acid, roughly twice as sour by weight, and it is what goes into sherbet and acidified drinks. Swapping one for the other in a recipe without adjusting the amount will throw both the rise and the taste.
Can tartaric acid upset your stomach?
At the amounts used to sour a drink or set a jelly, no. At larger amounts it behaves like other poorly absorbed acids and salts and pulls water into the bowel, which means loose stools and cramping. Fizzy sherbet powders combine it with bicarbonate, so a big serving delivers both the acid and a burst of carbon dioxide, and the bloating that follows is usually the gas rather than the acid.
References
Read the background
Ratings reflect the Triggerbites ingredient database and may vary with portion size and preparation.