Characteristics of Gellan Gum:
1. Very low dosage;
2. Excellent thermal stability and acid resistance;
3.Superior taste presentation;
4. Extremely high gel transparency;
5. Adjustability of elasticity and hardness;
6. Good compatibility
Scope of application
1. Food: beverages, sweets, jam, jelly, jelly, synthetic food, pet food, icing, icing, milk products
2. Drugs: eye drops, soft and hard capsules, microcapsules, coatings
3. Cosmetics: personal care products, perfumes
4.Chemical: coating, adhesive, toothpaste
5. Agriculture: slow-release fertilizer
6. Others: microorganisms, plant tissue culture medium, photosensitive film, air freshener In food manufacturing, gellan gum is not only used as a gelling agent, but more importantly, it can provide excellent texture and taste.
In the food industry, gellan gum is often mixed with colloids such as xanthan gum, guar gum, agar, and carboxymethyl cellulose. It can also improve starch to obtain the best texture and stability of the product.
Because of its superior gel properties, gellan gum has broad application prospects in food, pharmacy, chemical and other fields, and it has gradually replaced agar and carrageenan. In the food industry, gellan gum is mainly used as a thickener and stabilizer. It can be used in beverages, bread, dairy products, meat products, noodles, pastries, biscuits, shortening, instant coffee, fish products, ice cream, ice cream and other foods. , Can be used as a gelling agent for producing jams and jellies with low solid content, and can also be used in soft candies, sweets and canned pets. For example, when gellan gum is applied to noodle products such as Chinese noodles, soba noodles and cut noodles, it can enhance the hardness, elasticity and viscosity of noodles, improve the taste, inhibit hot water swelling, reduce broken strips and reduce the turbidity of the soup; Gellan gum is used as a stabilizer (combined with other stabilizers) to improve its shape retention when used in ice cream; gellan gum is added to pastries such as cakes and cheese cakes, and has moisturizing, fresh-keeping and shape-preserving properties.effect.
Gellan gum is a linear polymer. Due to the acyl group attached to the main chain of natural gellan gum, the formed gel is
soft, elastic and has strong adhesion, similar to xanthan gum and locust bean gum. . In contrast, the low-acyl type gel has the characteristics of high strength and brittleness, similar to the characteristics of carrageenan and agar. The low acyl type gellan gum is commonly used in industry.
Gellan gum can form a gel when there is an electrolyte, and a certain amount of electrolyte (usually calcium or magnesium salt) is added to the hot solution of gellan gum to obtain a gel after cooling. Gellan gum is heated to 70-75°C in deionized water for hydration. If gel is needed, electrolyte can be added at or above this temperature. Gel will not be formed at this time, and gel can be formed after cooling to 40-50℃. The optimal concentration of calcium ions is 4-6mmol, this gel is thermally irreversible; sodium and potassium salts can also cause gel, but the required concentration is about 25 times larger, and this type of gel is thermally reversible . To dissolve gellan gum in tap water containing inorganic salts, you need to add a chelating agent, such as sodium citrate or sodium hydrogen citrate. The chelating agent can combine with calcium and magnesium ions in the water to form a complex to avoid water Salts prevent the hydration of gellan gum.
The characteristic of gellan gum is that it can form a clear and transparent gel at a very low dosage (0.05%). The dosage is usually only 1/2-1/5 of agar and carrageenan, and the usual dosage is 0.1%-0.3% . In application, if the calcium ion content in the water exceeds 0.004%, chelating agents such as sodium citrate, sodium pyrophosphate, and sodium hexametaphosphate should be used. Ion concentration. The mechanism of chelating agent controlling gel strength is the same as that of alginate. Calcium ions are usually selected as calcium sulfate dihydrate, which can only be slightly soluble at neutral pH. The dry method is mixed with chelating agents such as sodium citrate and gellan gum, dissolved in cold water and heated to make it fully hydrated. , And then add citric acid while it is still hot. Due to the increased solubility of calcium sulfate dihydrate under acidic conditions, the effective calcium ions continue to increase over time, making the strength of the gel formed after cooling continue to rise. The use of chelating agents can also make gellan gum dissolve in 60% sucrose or In the hot solution of high fructose syrup, the system contains sucrose to
help improve the transparency of gellan gum.
When the temperature rises, the viscosity of the gellan gum solution drops rapidly, but the viscosity can be completely restored after cooling. When the temperature is reduced to the gel forming temperature of the system, the gel can be formed quickly. The gel forming temperature of the gellan gum depends on the gel concentration. And the
salt ion concentration can be above 30-50℃. The increase of ion concentration causes the gel formation temperature to rise, and also increases the gel strength. However, after exceeding a certain range (related to ion species), the gel strength begins to decrease. Similar to agar gel, gellan gum also has a difference between the gel temperature and the melting temperature. The melting temperature value is also related to the ion concentration and type in the system. The range is between 70-130°C. Use 0.2 of 0.03% calcium ion. % Gellan gum solution, the melting temperature of the gel can be as high as 120 ℃ or more.
Gellan gum is also very stable in acidic products, and performance under pH4-7.5 conditions. During storage, its texture is not subject to changes in time and temperature. The gel is rich in juice and has good flavor release. It is a kind of brittle glue, which is very sensitive to shearing force, and it melts in the mouth when eaten. It can be seen that the gel formed by gellan gum has good stability, acid resistance, high temperature resistance, thermal reversibility, and resistance to microorganisms and enzymes. It is stable under high pressure cooking and baking conditions. The compatibility of gellan gum with other gums.
When compounded, locust bean gum, guar gum, CMC, xanthan gum and other non-gelling hydrosols have no significant effect on the tissue properties of gellan gum. However, when gelatin, a mixture of xanthan gum and locust bean gum, starch and other gelatinous hydrosols are
added, the texture can be changed significantly. For example, when gellan gum, xanthan gum, and locust bean gum are compounded at 2:2:1, the brittleness of the gel is increased from 20% to 40%, and the modulus is reduced from 350kPa to 80kPa.
The combination of gellan gum and other food gums can be used to prepare beverage products such as hidden beverages, gelatinized sodas, and refreshing fruity flavors. It can also be used to prepare pearl rubber particles and produce fruit suspension beverages. Unlike the rubber particles made of seaweed gum, the rubber particles made of gellan gum compound glue have a smooth taste and stable quality, and can be made into different colors and flavors. The color and flavor of the rubber particles will not diffuse into the beverage solution.
Application aspects:
1: Suspended beverage According to actual application research, beverages with gellan gum as the main agent of suspending agent not only have ideal suspending effect, but also have strong acid resistance and show good
stability during beverage storage. The advantages that the plant colloid of the suspension agent does not possess.
2: Candy One of the advantages of gellan gum is that it is suitable for cold and hot filling processing, as a filler to make the final product resistant to boiling. Gellan gum can form gel at high sugar concentration. However, because high sugar concentration can prevent gellan gum from hydrating, it is necessary to pre-hydrate gellan gum in low-concentration sugars when preparing high-solid candies, and then boil and concentrate to reach the final sugar concentration. Gellan gum is used in candy, and its main function is to provide the product with superior structure and texture, and to shorten the time for the formation of starch soft gel. If adding 0.075% gellan gum to the starch soft enamel, the gel forming time can be shortened from 24 to 80 hours to about 12 hours.
3: Jelly, jam Gellan gum is hydrated with a chelating agent such as sodium citrate, followed by adding acid to release calcium ions required for gelation, which can be used to prepare jams. In this application, gellan gum is a useful substitute for pectin. Generally, the production of jelly and jam uses pectin as a gelling agent, and gellan gum is used as a gelling agent instead of pectin, which not only reduces the amount of use, but also provides better texture and mouthfeel. For example, to produce low-solids jam (38%), the use of gellan gum is about 0.2%, and you can make * low-solids jam. If low-methoxy pectin or carrageenan is used, their The dosage is 0.8% and 1% respectively.
4: Artificial food The use of gellan gum to produce artificial food is obviously better than the use of other food gums, especially for the production of artificial fruit pieces. For example, in the production of artificial allspice blocks, the usage of gellan gum is 0.7%, but if seaweed gum is used instead of gellan gum, the usage of seaweed gum is 1.0%, and its processing performance is far inferior. Gellan gum, gellan gum can make the artificial fruit block not melt during the sterilization process, and maintain its intact characteristic shape during the processing process.
5: Pie filling and pudding Gellan gum can also be combined with starch or partially replaced starch, used in pastries and fruit tart fillings. Foods such as pie fillings and puddings usually have a gel structure or a thick texture. In the past, starch or a mixture of starch, protein and phosphate was generally used to maintain the characteristic structure of such foods. However, products that use starch are unstable in shape and have a general taste. These defects can be improved after using modified starch instead of general starch. If gellan gum is used to replace part of the modified starch, the resulting product will have a more stable shape and a great taste. The improvement.
6: Baked products The properties of gellan gum are similar to agar, and its usage is much lower than that of agar. Therefore, it is often used in bakery products instead of agar to decorate bakery products, mainly to control moisture content. For example, in the frosting materials of cakes, the amount of gellan gum is about 0.3%, and the amount of agar is more than 2.0%, which is 7 times the former. For example, in vanilla fruit cakes, the amount of gellan gum used is 0.3%, while the amounts of starch and seaweed gum are 3.0% and 1.2%, 0.4% carrageenan or 1. Only 0% starch can obtain a similar texture. Gellan gum can also be used as a stabilizing thickener in ice cream, and its dosage is very low.
7: Dairy products Gellan gum can also be used in milk-based products. Gellan gum can be directly hydrated in milk when heated to 75°C. In acid milk products (such as yogurt, fermented sour cream or directly acidified milk gel), another hydrosol (such as CMC or guar gum) must be added to act as a colloidal protective agent and protect the precipitation of milk proteins. In dairy products, gellan gum can replace carrageenan, gelatin, seaweed gum and pectin, and can provide better gel and consistency. In terms of usage, gellan gum is superior to other food gums.
8: Application of gellan gum in pet food 9 Gellan gum has been successfully applied in canned pet gel food. Gel pet food is the traditional application field of carrageenan-locust bean gum-KCL gel. Gellan gum can be used together with other hydrosols. For example, guar gum and xanthan gum can be used to control syneresis, and the combination of xanthan gum and locust bean gum can reduce brittleness. Gellan gum can replace about half of the carrageenan mixture in gel pet food.
9: Application of gellan gum in water-based gel food The hot water dessert gel with extremely high transparency can be prepared by a mixture of sucrose, food-grade chelating agent (such as sodium citrate), slowly dissolving acid (such as fatty acid, adipic acid) and gellan gum. All these ingredients are added to boiling water like a single dry mixture. Sodium citrate removes the calcium ions in the water and promotes the dissolution of the colloid. Then, the fatty acid slowly dissolves, lowers the pH of the solution, and releases the calcium ions required for gelation. Although this product looks like a gel-like dessert gel, its structure is different from gelatin gel, it breaks quickly after being ingested, and the flavor release is excellent.
In addition, the gel formed by gellan gum exhibits significant thermal stability and high transparency. Because of these characteristics, gellan gum can be used in the culture medium of thermophilic microorganisms instead of agar. The plant culture medium based on gellan gum can solve the problems caused by the impurity of agar