Gluconic acid is a noncorrosive, nonvolatile, nontoxic, mild organic acid. It imparts a refreshing sour taste
in many food items such as wine, fruit juices, etc. Sodium gluconate has a high sequestering power. It is a
good chelator at alkaline pH; its action is comparativelybetter than EDTA, NTA and other chelators. Aqueoussolutions of sodium gluconate are resistant to oxidationand reduction at high temperatures. It is an efficient plasticizer and a highly efficient set retarder. It is easily biodegradable (98 % at 48 h). It has an interesting property of inhibiting bitterness in foodstuffs. Concentrated gluconic acid solution contains certain lactone structures (neutral cyclic ester) showing antiseptic property. The characterisitics are described in Table 1.