The main function of food gel and how to choose to use

Food glue can be used as an outer capsule for packaged foods. The common forms are soft capsules and microcapsules. The former is similar to the role of coating agents, colloids such as gelatin and carrageenan are often used, and the latter is generally used as an activity sensitive to external environmental conditions. The protective layer of natural substances, such as powder flavors, controls the release of flavoring substances. Gum arabic, xanthan gum, etc. are often used as wall materials.

Suspension dispersion

Most food gums have surface activity and can be adsorbed on the surface of the disperse phase to make it have a certain degree of hydrophilicity and easily disperse in aqueous systems. For example, it can often be used as a suspension of chocolate milk .

Water retention, water retention

Food gels are hydrophilic polymers that have strong water absorption. Apply it; after food. The food can be kept at a certain moisture content and can be used in puddings, pastries, cheeses, frozen foods and other foods.

Controlled crystallization

Food glue can give food a higher viscosity, so that the system is not easy to crystallize or crystal small, used in candy, dairy products (ice cream), frozen foods, can increase the expansion rate, reduce the possibility of precipitation of ice crystals, can make the product taste exquisite.

Other features

In addition to some of the above characteristics, food gums have some other functional properties that have important applications in the processing and improvement of many foods, including cohesiveness, whipped foaming, and other functions. In addition, under certain conditions, the food gel can be adsorbed on multiple dispersing media at the same time to make it coagulate, so as to achieve the purpose of purification. It can be used for the clarification of beer and liquor. For example, adding a small amount of polyvinyl pyrrolidone to beer can be achieved. Make beer clear.

Food gum selection

The texture of food is an important property of food in addition to color, aroma, and taste. It is not only a factor that is difficult to control in food processing, but also one of the most important indicators for determining food grade. Food glue is used as a food quality improver in the food industry to improve the food's taste, appearance, shape, and storage properties. When using food glue, we must have a clear understanding of the purpose of use (which of the characteristics of the application of plastic) in order to choose according to the characteristics of different food gel.

As mentioned earlier, since all food gums have more than one function, when selecting the best food gums for any food-special application, you should also consider whether the “candidate” food gums are used by the lungs in the food. For other functions, food technologists need to consider many factors in selecting food gums. They must consider the product form (such as gel, fluidity, hardness, transparency and turbidity, etc.); product system (suspended particle capacity, consistency, flavor, Types of raw materials, etc.); product storage (time, flavor stability, moisture, song transfer), product processing methods and economics. Otherwise, without considering other factors, choosing directly to use the best performing food gel in this application may not be the best choice. When specific food gums are selected, specific factors to be considered are listed in the table in order of importance.

It can be seen from the table that the food glue application in what kind of food is the first factor to consider when choosing the proper food glue, such as making jelly optional gelling agent carrageenan, making ice cream optional stabilizer CMC, etc. Food developers in the selection of food gels all hope that it can perform multiple functions, such as the common situation is two kinds of functions, than the development of frozen, food gel is more strong gelling, while the water holding capacity is better, otherwise the jelly is easy to analyze Water, but often the situation is that both functions do not achieve the best results, which urges food developers to consider using two food gums together, and these two food gums take on these two functions respectively. , And may perform well, this is the compound of food glue.

Gelling and viscosity characteristics are two other factors that need special consideration when choosing food gums. If the food to be developed is a gel-type food, consider the choice of colloids that can be gelling gelling agent, as mentioned earlier, there are not many common gums in the food gel, including gelatin, carrageenan, Alginate, pectin, gum arabic, gellan gum, curdlan, etc., but with the compound glues mentioned several times in the past (when alone, they cannot be glued, or at least one of them cannot be glued). There are more choices of gelling agents. However, considering the quality of the gel, whether the gel is reversible, the melting temperature, transparency, taste, stability, coexistence of metal ions and cost, there is not much room for selection; if the food developed is mainly solved The thickening problem, that is, the viscosity characteristics of the food system, there are many alternative food gums, because all food gums have a thickening effect, so factors such as cost, stability, and taste are factors that need special consideration.

The taste of the product is very important for the selection of the proper food glue because it is related to the consumer's acceptability. The gummy taste of the product is not acceptable to most food consumers. Food developers can consider reducing or eliminating this bad taste by controlling the amount of food gel and using other suitable food ingredients. The sticky taste is often related to the melting temperature and smoothness of the gel. For example, gelatin melts at a lower temperature, and the soft candy made from it may slowly melt during summer storage, resulting in a taste Sticky and slippery, but carrageenan melting point is significantly higher than gelatin, carrageenan gum is not easy to happen.

Cost is another important factor to consider when choosing food gum, because it is related to the market competitiveness of the applied food and the profitability of the company that produces the food. Different from other types of food additives, when considering the cost of food glue, it is necessary to consider the relationship between the amount of added food and the functional effect. The amount of food glue that can be obtained when the food needs to achieve the function is the direct source of the cost of the food glue. . In fact, the amount of use of a food gum for achieving a function in different foods is often different, and the amount of use for different functions in the same food is sometimes different, so that the cost of food gum is also applied. different. In addition, we must also consider the problem of food gum compounding. The compounding between food gums is still relatively simple, but there are many compounded food gum compounds that have other relatively inexpensive ingredients such as dextrin, starch, etc. Makes the compound food glue supplier to offer two kinds of possibility to the food application customer: The compounding food glue sells the price lower, but adds the quantity very much; The compounded food glue sells the price to be higher, but the addition amount is lower. Therefore, food developers should take these factors into account when choosing this kind of compound food glue.

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