STABILISERS:
To ensure your recipe is truly excellent, you need the perfect stabilizer
Hydrocolloids are widely used in many food products to improve their quality and shelf life. The two main reasons for their use are thickening products and forming gels.
Due to their ability to change the rheological properties of food, their two main effects are changing viscosity and changing texture, i.e., the physical parameters of food. In this way, the sensory characteristics of the final food product are altered.
While most hydrocolloids exhibit thickening properties, some of them have the ability to form gels as their primary property. The characteristics of the gel itself (elastic or brittle, firm or spreadable, gummy or creamy) depend on the hydrocolloid used. Additionally, other sensory characteristics, such as transparency, taste, and mouthfeel, also depend on the applied hydrocolloid.
Other, less important reasons for using hydrocolloids include emulsification, stabilization, control of ice crystal growth, and sugar crystallization.
Known as Guaran, Guar Gum is a hydrocolloid obtained by extracting the endosperm of the Guar plant, Cyamopsis Tetragonoloba. It is mainly cultivated in India and to a lesser extent in Pakistan.
It is effective as a thickener, with eight times the thickening power of corn starch. It is stable in solutions with a pH of 5-7. In acidic environments, it undergoes hydrolysis, leading to a loss of viscosity, and in alkaline environments, its viscosity also decreases.
Unlike Locust bean gum, it is not a self-gelling agent.
It is used in the production of cosmetic products, textiles, pharmaceuticals, the paper industry, and recently as a fracturing agent in the oil industry.
It is available as semi-refined Guar, usually for the meat industry, and as highly refined Guar gum with specific characteristics.
It is used in the production of ice cream, puddings, whipped cream, bread, biscuits, pasta, mayonnaise, ketchup, sauces, dressings, hams, sausages, canned meat and fish products, dairy products…
Tara gum is a natural hydrocolloid obtained through mechanical processes from the endosperm of the Tara plant seeds. The Tara plant (Caesalpinia spinosa, family Leguminosae) is often called the Peruvian Carob tree. Its natural habitat is the Peruvian Andes.
Tara gum is a galactomannan similar to Guar and Locust Bean gum. It is a high molecular weight polysaccharide with a galactose to mannose ratio of 1:3, compared to Locust Bean gum’s 1:4 and Guar gum’s 1:2. This gives Tara gum unique characteristics similar to both gums, which cannot be achieved by simply mixing the two.
It dissolves relatively well in cold water, developing good viscosity at 25º C. The viscosity of a 1% aqueous solution is identical to or slightly higher than that of Guar Gum.
Tara gum has exceptional potential in the dairy industry, fruit processing, dressings, and delicacies, as well as in many other applications where it shows unique properties necessary for the stability of deep-frozen products.
Locust Bean Gum, also known as Carob Flour or Carob Gum, is obtained by extracting from the seeds of the “Ceratonia siliqua” or Carob tree, which mainly grows in Mediterranean countries.
It is produced through processes of separating the endosperm from the fruits, grinding, filtering, and standardizing. It is used as a thickener and gelling agent.
It completely dissolves when heated to 80-90ºC. Its most well-known application is in the production of cream cheeses, where it binds water and provides good spreadability without a gritty texture.
It is widely used in the production of ice cream, dairy desserts, culinary products, as well as fruit preparations with pectin, low-fat sauces…
It is also known for its use in the preparation of canned pet food and in the paper industry.
KONJAC GUM
Konjac Glucomannan is a polysaccharide composed of D-mannose and D-glucose, derived from the root of the “Elephant Yam” (Amorphophallus Konjac), which primarily grows in China and Japan.
Konjac flour or Konjac gum is a soluble dietary fiber, both in cold and hot water, with no calories. Its molecules have a strong water-binding capacity, binding 200 times its own weight, creating a viscous liquid with a viscosity ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 cPs, making it the most significant dietary fiber known in science.
Its viscosity is 10 times greater than that of corn starch. It is highly effective in preventing syneresis, reducing ice crystal growth (e.g., in ice cream), and in water, it slowly swells and forms a gel resistant to crumbling and stretching.
In Japan, it is part of traditional cuisine, served under the name Konnyaku along with miso sauce, and in China as a jelly called konjac-tofu. It is known for its effects on regulating blood glucose levels and cholesterol levels.
In the Far East, it is used by dissolving 5 grams of konjac in 250 ml of water, to be consumed 15 minutes before a meal.
It is used in the preparation of pasta, sauces and dressings, ice cream, puddings, whipped cream, bread, biscuits, pasta, mayonnaise, ketchup, sauces, ice cream, confectionery jellies, puddings, glazes, candies, the meat industry, medical preparations, and micro-capsules.
Carrageenan belongs to the sulfated polysaccharides and is extracted from red seaweed. It is widely used in the food industry due to its thickening, gelling, and stabilizing properties. It is most commonly used in the meat and dairy industries because of its strong binding to food proteins. There are three main types of carrageenan depending on the degree of sulfation:
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Kappa carrageenan has one sulfate group per disaccharide chain and forms a strong gel in the presence of potassium ions.
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Iota carrageenan has two sulfate groups per disaccharide chain and forms a soft gel in the presence of calcium ions.
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Lambda carrageenan has three sulfate groups per disaccharide chain and does not form a gel, but is used as a thickener in the dairy industry.
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Semi-refined carrageenan, with its characteristic odor, is mainly used in the meat industry, while refined carrageenan, which achieves a higher degree of filtration of the algal cell wall, and mixtures of these two types of carrageenan are also used.
Carrageenan is used in the pharmaceutical industry (toothpaste, shampoos), paper production, paints, ceramic glazes, and the food industry (ice cream, chocolate milk, pudding, milkshake, salad dressing, canned food, fruit drinks, jelly, jelly candies, beer, pie, soy milk), and pet food.
Xanthan gum is a heteropolysaccharide obtained from the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris during the fermentation of sugars and subsequent precipitation. It is classified as a biosynthetic additive.
It is used in the production of water-based paints in art, light adhesives (e.g., on envelopes, cigarettes), and in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. As an emulsifier and thickener, humectant, and glazing agent (mainly due to its low viscosity), it is most commonly used in the food industry for stabilizing beverages and syrups, where it effectively binds sugars, in the production of emulsions (where it does not affect the aroma), confectionery products (pralines), gummy candies, sauces, ice cream, fillings, chewing gums, and cake production.
Due to its pseudoplasticity and resistance to shear forces, it is ideal for making salad dressings. Although it is used as a thickener, it also serves as a stabilizer in suspensions or emulsions of solid particles in aqueous solutions.
GUM ARABIC
