Xylitol

Pectin (E440) is a heterogeneous grouping of acidic structural polysaccharides, found in fruit and vegetables.Commercial extraction causes extensive degradation of the neutral sugar-containing sidechains.Pectin is a structural heteropolysaccharide contained in the primary cell walls of terrestrial plants.During ripening, pectin is broken down by the enzymes pectinase and pectinesterase; in this process the fruit becomes softer as the middle lamella breaks down and cells become separated from each other.

A natural gelling agent found in ripe fruit. Pectin is an important ingredient in making jams and jellies. The levels of pectin vary from fruit to fruit.It is possible to buy pectin as a liquid extract or in powdered form. On ready-made jams and jellies it’s labelled as E440.

Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance its taste and appearance.With the advent of processed foods in the second half of the 20th century, many more additives have been introduced, of both natural and artificial origin.

Thickening agents, or thickeners, is the term applied to substances which increase the viscosity of a solution or liquid/solid mixture without substantially modifying its other properties;Food thickeners frequently are based on either polysaccharides.One example is sodium pyrophosphate, which acts on casein in milk during the preparation of instant pudding.

Food additives can be divided into several groups, although there is some overlap between them.Food acids are added to make flavors "sharper", and also act as preservatives and antioxidants. Common food acids include vinegar, citric acid, tartaric acid, malic acid, fumaric acid, and lactic acid.

Others thickeners: Carboxy Methyl Cellulose(CMC)     Guar Gum     Konjac Gum

If you read labels to steer clear from any sketchy sounding food additives, you’ve probably come across xanthan gum in random items from ice cream to salad dressings, from toothpaste to gluten-free desserts.

Our new house has raspberry bushes like nobodies business. A giant giant one by the front of the house next to the driveway, and two smaller ones out back. I've been picking about a pint a day, yesterday I picked a pint and a half. I don't even know what to do with that many raspberries.

The process begins with a sugar from a soy, wheat, dairy, or corn source. A strain of bacteria, called Xanthomonas campetris, is added to the sugar to create a gum, or a slimy substance, which works as a colorless and tasteless thickener, stabilizer, and emulsifier.If you’re attempting some gluten-free baking of your own, it is recommended that when converting a flour-based recipe to gluten-free, add one to two teaspoons of xanthan gum for cakes and up to one teaspoon of xanthan gum for cookies.

I used a bunch of raspberries to make a jam which I spread in the middle of a chocolate cake, which I then frosted with easy dark chocolate frosting and promptly devoured.

And according to Web MD , xanthan gum can work as a laxative; it swells in the intestinal tract and activates digestion. If you experience uncomfortable bloating after eating products that contain xanthan gum, try substituting guar gum , which is made from thickeners guar beans and produces a comparable gummy texture.

The many cosmetic and pharmaceutical applications of this Xanthan Gum include the use in tooth pastes, lotions, shampoos, and formulations for tablets.Xanthan Gum is used as a baking aid in recipes which require gluten free flours. Gluten is needed to impart elasticity to the dough which would allow it to hold in the gases formed by fermentation which causes the rising effect.

Other food additives: Carrageenan      Pectin       Xanthan Gum

Carrageenan are a family of linear sulfated polysaccharides that are extracted from red seaweeds.Iota carrageenan is used primarily in fruit applications and requires calcium ions to develop a heat-reversible and flexible gel.Lambda carrageenan is a non gelling variety that assists in binding, retaining moisture and in contributing to viscosity in sweet doughs.A hybrid technology in which weed is treated heterogeneously as in the semirefined process exists, but alcohol or high salt levels are used to inhibit dissolution.Carrageenan, by the way, is a seaweed extract. Carrageenan is a natural polysaccharide.Its name is derived from the Chondrus crispus species of seaweed known as Irish Moss or Carrrageen Moss in England, and as Carraigin in Ireland.

The carrageenan as a thickeners used in some Edensoy is extracted from a variety of red seaweeds.It is extracted using a multi-step process to avoid any degradation either by boiling the seaweed in water and freeze-drying it.The carageenan solubilizes in the water, and forms a gel upon cooling. Commercially, food grade is then simply concentrated.Carrageenans are large,highly flexible molecules.They are widely used in the food and other industries as thickening and stabilizing agents.This means that they are easy to pump but stiffen again afterwards.

When used in food additives, carrageenan has the EU additive E-number E407.The primary differences that influence the properties of kappa, iota, and lambda carrageenan are the number and position of the ester sulfate groups on the repeating galactose units. In parts of Scotland and Ireland.Also many sliced deli meats are enriched with carrageenan. Carrageenan may also be marketed in its jelled form as a personal lubricant. Companies like Tom’s of Maine® use carrageenan in a variety of products from toothpaste to deodorant.

Related produces: Konjac Gum    Pectin     Sodium Alginate

These double helices are stabilized by the presence of water molecules bound inside the double helical cavity.In Indian cuisine agar agar is also known as “China grass” however this could be made from a combination of various other carbohydrates and not seaweed.Agar is a polymer made up of subunits of the sugar galactose. Agar polysaccharides serve as the primary structural support for the algae's cell walls.Agar consists of a mixture of agarose and agaropectin. Agarose is a thickeners, made up of the repeating monomeric unit of agarobiose.

To use agar agar flakes in recipes, traditional instructions call for 1 T. of agar flakes to every cup of water or juice, but these measurements may vary from recipe to recipe.The gelling agent is an unbranched polysaccharide obtained from the cell walls of some species of red algae, primarily from the genera Gelidium and Gracilaria, or seaweed. Commercially it is derived primarily from Gelidium amansii.

As a concentration gradient develops from the diffusion of the chemoattractant into the gel, various cell populations requiring different stimulation levels to migrate can then be visualized over time using microphotography as they tunnel upward through the gel against gravity along the gradient.In Philippine cuisine, it is used to make the jelly bars in the various gulaman refreshments or desserts such as sago gulaman, buko pandan, agar flan, halo-halo, the various Filipino fruit salads, black gulaman, and red gulaman.

The unusual and complex agar carbohydrates that form agar agar are extracted from gelidium species of Red Sea algae. Agar agar(E406) is also known by its Japanese name Kanten. This property lends a suitable balance between easy melting and good gel stability at relatively high temperatures. Since many scientific applications require incubation at temperatures close to human body temperature.

Agar-agar powder is a natural vegetable gelatin counterpart. White and semi-translucent, it is sold in packages as washed and dried strips or in powdered form.In Philippine cuisine, it is used to make the jelly bars in the various gulaman refreshments or desserts such as food additives, buko pandan, agar flan, halo-halo, the various Filipino fruit salads, black gulaman, and red gulaman.Although both polysaccharide classes share the same galactose-based backbone, agaropectin is heavily modified with acidic side-groups, such as sulfate and pyruvate.

Other food additives:   I(+)G      Sodium Alginate    Xanthan Gum

Sodium Alginate can raise the product's stabilization and decrease the liquid out when it is used in sala(a cold dish)flavoring, pudding(a sweet pstry)jam, tomato ketchup and the canned products.I used sodium alginate from the Texturas series and calcium chloride from foodchem. Needless to say, I’m very fascinated by the texture and the whole process.

Alginic acid belongs to thickeners is an anionic polysaccharide distributed widely in the cell walls of brown algae, where it, through binding water, forms a viscous gum.The monomers can appear in homopolymeric blocks of consecutive G-residues.Commercial varieties of alginate are extracted from seaweed, including the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera, Ascophyllum nodosum, and various types of Laminaria.

In recent years, sodium alginate has been used in molecular gastronomy at some of the best restaurants in the world. Ferran Adria pioneered the technique, and it has since been used by chefs such as Grant Achatz and Heston Blumenthal. Sodium alginate is combined with calcium lactate or similar compound to create spheres of liquid surrounded by a thin jelly membrane.

Sodium alginate works as a cold gelling agent that needs no heat to gel. It gels in the presence of calcium compounds. Most commonly used with calcium chloride to make caviar and spheres. It dilutes while cold with strong agitation. Heat is not needed to produce spherification. Sodium alginate can also be used to produce foams.

I have blogged about the chemistry behind previously.I had to obtain a scale with a 0.1 g accuracy to weigh out 2.0 g of sodium alginate (my first experiments using a normal kitchen food additives failed). The model I got cost about $100 and is inteded for school laboratories.Sodium Alginate will make noodle, vermicelli or ice powder have a strong cohesiveness, pulling , bending and reduce breaking, special suitable in the less gluten content of wheat flour.Sodium Alginate suits to make kinds of gel product, which can be kept the fine state, conleakge and contraction.

Other produces:  Caffeine Anhydrous   Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)   I(+)G