Abstract: A food preservation composition comprising a combination of safe chemicals is effective in low concentrations and imparts no off-color taste to the foods with which it is used, yet effectively prevents the discoloration of vegetables such as potatoes. Citric acid and cysteine, combined in the ratio of about 1 part cysteine to about 25 to 30 parts citric acid, may effectively prevent the blackening of potatoes when applied in solutions of about 0.5 to 0.7 percent by weight in water. A water solution of cysteine and citric acid in which the citric acid does not exceed 1 percent by weight, and the cysteine does not exceed 0.05 percent by weight of the solution, effectively prevents such blackening. Citric acid/cysteine compositions are rendered even more effective in the presence of very low concentrations of ascorbic acid; for example, about 0.1 percent to about 0.3 percent by weight in the water solution.