What it does
It raises pH away from the isoelectric point of meat protein, which opens the structure and lets it hold more water. It dissociates actomyosin, freeing myosin to dissolve and therefore to bind. It stabilises the emulsion, because that extracted protein forms the film around fat. It improves cooking yield, as the commercial consequence of the first three. And it chelates the iron and copper that catalyse lipid oxidation, which has nothing to do with the other four.
Where it works
Injected and tumbled whole muscle, emulsified products, and anywhere yield and bind are commercial measures. Also in dairy as an emulsifying salt, a different role covered separately.
Where it does not
Clean label positioning excludes it, and several markets regulate the level closely. It also cannot rescue a product whose problem is raw material quality rather than water binding.
What it interacts with
Salt, which it works with rather than instead of. Calcium and alginate, which it will sequester. Reduce salt and phosphate together and the two reductions compound rather than add.
