Interesting facts about stabilizers
The present shows that consumers are getting more and more interested in foodstuffs” mixture they buy. Radio, TV broadcasting and press present wide range of information about foodstuff ingredients; however, sometimes this information varies from real facts, causing consumers” certain fear of products, where stabilizers are added. Therefore, what are stabilizers?
Stabilizers often are classified by origin:
- proteins (animal or vegetable): gelatin, modified milk proteins, modified soy proteins, caseinates;
- natural vegetable exudates: gum arabic, gum ghatti and gum karaya;
- vegetable gums and mucus: oat gum, carob bean gum, locust bean gum, guar gum, black locust bean pod gum, psyllium gum, quince-seed gum, tamarind, gum tragacanth;
- algae extracts: agar and agaroid, furcellaran, sodium alginate, propylene glycol alginate;
- pectins, retrieved from apples, sugar beet, citrous, sunflower heads (low and high etherified);
- cellulose derivatives: sodium carboxymethylcellulose and carboxymethyl cellulose, methyl and methylethyl cellulose, hydroxymethyl cellulose, hydrozypropyl and hydrozypropylmethyl cellulose, microcrystalline cellulose;
- microbial gums: dextran, xanthan gum, beta-1,3 glucan;
- starch and modified starch: wheat, maize, potato starches, oxidated gelatinizing, or oxidated food starches, or carboxymethyl starches, tapioka gelatinizing starch or tapioka oxidated food starch and others.
Most polysaccharides, such as guar gum (E 412), carod bean gum (E 410), tara gum (E 417), caraginans (E 407 and E 407a), pectins (E440), sodium alginates (E 401), are made of natural primary products with the help of alkaline chemical reactions and multiphase refining. Apart from polysaccharides, which are useful for consumption in limited quantities because of radiation protection and adsorbability (by binding and excretion radionuclides and heavy metals from organism), gums include valuable quantity of dietary fibers (celulose), which, on their turn, improve metabolism and digestion.
Stabilizers” application rate depend on technological properties and ice cream type and may vary from 0.2 to 3.0%.
Lots of stabilizing compositions were developed for ice cream production for mutual enhancement of their positive technological abilities on account of synergistic result and reduction of individual negative technological abilities. For producers, integrated mixture usage gives a chance to cut number of functional ingredients, which are essential for stable storage and ice cream quality provision; besides, it allows to minimize operators” error risk during ingredients blending.
The following factors are related to additional preferences of integrated mixture usage: usage convenience, complete mixture solution during processing, even at low temperatures; low viscosity level during blending; simultaneous applying of several functional ingredients; high effectiveness due to components that are balanced correctly; 'dust' pollution prevention during mixture introduction; clot prevention during mixture preparation; high bacteriological purity; synergistic result due to mutual enhancement of individual action of mixture components.
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