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FDA Approves Freon Propellant for Foods Du Pont expects whipped cream to be the first food item in aerosol packages using Freon C-318 Du Pont's Freon C-318 has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in food aerosols. Freon C-318, octafluorocyclobutane, thus becomes the first fluorocarbon propellant accepted for food use. Du Pont, which has been sampling Freon C-318 alone and in combination with nitrous oxide for some time, is now ready to move into the market for pressurized food products. Over 100 million units of pressurized food items were sold in 1960. Of these, about 70 million units were of the disposable type. Whipped cream is by far the biggest pressurized food item. According to Du Pont, whipped cream will probably be the first food product to appear in aerosol packages using Freon C-318 as the propellant. Pressurized packages of barbecue sauce, cheese spreads, coffee concentrates, sirups, toppings, noncaloric sweeteners, and similar food items are also available. Propellants now used for these items are nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen, alone and in combination. There are two types of pressurized food packages, the so-called aerosol types that dispense material as a foam
(whipped cream) and the wet-spray or nonaerated containers that dispense material as a heavy spray or liquid (salad oil or vitamins). In the wetspray type of container, the use of compressed gases has been satisfactory. But use of compressed gases as propellants in the aerosol foam packages has not been entirely satisfactory. One of the major problems is that the gases do not fully dispense the can's contents. This disadvantage could be countered by making the container very large relative to the amount of material it must dispense. But container costs, and governmental requirements that the container reasonably reflect the amount of material it contains rule against this kind of a solution. It is here that the use of Freon C-318 offers advantages. Empty Can. By using Freon C-318, aerosol cans that normally contain 7 ounces of cream can now be made to dispense all of their contents as a high quality whipped cream at an additional cost of about a half a cent per can, Du Pont says. But the final package cost can be reduced by lowering the butterfat content of the cream.
Output of Pressurized Food Products Has Grown Steadily Since 1949 Millions of Units
Source: Du Pont and C7N estimate 26
C & E N OCT. 1 6, 19 61
C-318 is essentially water-insoluble and its small bubbles remain dispersed throughout the cream without coalescing. (The dispensing pressure comes from the vapor pressure of the liquefied propellant.) But Freon C-318 used alone is not the whole answer. As a sole agent its low vapor pressure is a handicap. It is most effective when used from 10 to 20% by weight of propellant, the remainder being nitrous oxide. Such a mixture, having 15% Freon C-318 and 85% nitrous oxide, is being sold by the Ohio Chemical and Surgical division of Air Reduction Co., under a marketing agreement with Du Pont. Price of the mixture is $1.25 a pound. However, Du Pont expects the price to drop to 85 cents a pound as demand increases. The market for Freon C-318-nitrous oxide mixture should reach 1 million pounds during 1962, according to Du Pont and Ohio Chemical and Surgical. It takes about 7 grams of the mixture to fill a 16-ounce aerosol can containing 7 to 9 ounces of cream. The Freon C-318-nitrous oxide mixture yields whipped creams that have good stability, stiffness, color retention, and a creamy, natural look. And the mixture is less expensive than straight Freon C-318. The mixture, although a considerable improvement over nitrous oxide alone, does not give the uniformity of product during dispenser use that straight C-318 gives. Freon C-318 is odorless, tasteless, colorless, and chemically stable and has a molecular weight of 200.0. It boils at 21.1° F., and has a vapor pressure of 25 pounds per square inch gage at 70° F. It is nonflammable, nonexplosive, and nontoxic. New Uses. Du Pont, which developed the Freon C-318-nitrous oxide mixture for food uses with the help of Ohio Chemical, thinks that the whipped cream market, a large and well established market, is a good place to start pushing Freon C-318. Meanwhile, Du Pont is looking at many other specialty foods. Such items include canape spreads, meat products, cheese whips, sour cream, salad dressings, honey butter (for crumbly muffins and biscuits), and peanut butter. Catsup was tried early in the program, but the resulting froth, a sickly orange-pink in color, hardly looked appetizing. Du Pont also has other Freons under study as potential propellants for food.
