Gelling agent

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gelling agents are food additives used to thicken and stabilize various foods, like jellies, desserts and candies. The agents provide the foods with texture through formation of a gel. Some stabilizers and thickening agents are gelling agents. See also gel.

Typical gelling agents include natural gums, starches, pectins, agar-agar and gelatin. Often they are based on polysaccharides or proteins.

Examples are:

• Alginic acid (E400), sodium alginate (E401), potassium alginate (E402), ammonium alginate (E403), calcium alginate (E404) - polysaccharides from brown algae
• Agar (E406, a polysaccharide obtained from red seaweeds)
• Carrageenan (E407, a polysaccharide obtained from red seaweeds)
• Locust bean gum (E410, a natural gum from the seeds of the Carob tree)
• Pectin (E440, a polysaccharide obtained from apple or citrus-fruit)
• Gelatin (E441, made by partial hydrolysis of animal collagen)

In petrochemistry, gelling agents, also called solidifiers, are chemicals capable of reacting with oil spills and forming rubber-like solids. The gelled coagulated oil then can be removed from the water surface by skimming, suction devices, or nets. Calm or only moderately rough sea is required.