- The main role of alginate in foods
- Stabilization
Sodium alginate replaces starch and gelatin as stabilizer for ice cream, which can control the formation of ice crystals and improve the taste of ice cream, and also stabilize mixed drinks such as sugar-water ice-cream, ice-cream and frozen milk. Many dairy products, such as refined cheese, guandan cream, cheese, etc. The stabilizing effect of sodium alginate can prevent the adhesion of food and packaging, can be used as a dairy jewelry cover, which can make it stable and prevent frosting pastry cracking.
- Thickening
Sodium alginate can be used in salad (a kind of coleslaw) sauce, pudding (a kind of sweet snacks), jam, ketchup and canned products of the thickening agent, in order to improve the stability of the product properties, reduce the liquid seepage.
- Hydration
Add sodium alginate in the production of noodles, vermicelli, rice flour can improve the adhesion of the product organization, so that it is strong, bendable, reduce the rate of breakage, especially for the gluten content of the lower flour, the effect is more obvious. Add sodium alginate in bread, pastries and other products, can improve the internal organization of the product uniformity and water holding effect, prolong the storage time. Added in the frozen confectionery products can provide thermal fusion protective layer, improve the flavor escape, improve the melting point of the performance.
- Gelation
Sodium alginate can be made into a variety of gel food, maintain a good colloidal form, no ooze or shrinkage, suitable for frozen food and artificial imitation food. It can also be used to cover fruits, meat, poultry and aquatic products as a protective layer, with no direct contact with the air to extend the storage time. It can also be used as a self-coagulating forming agent for icing of bread, stuffing filler, coating layer of confectionery and canned food. In high temperature, freezing and acidic medium can still maintain the original shape. It can also replace agar to make elastic, non-stick teeth, transparent crystal soft candy.
- Alginate in the food specific applications
- Application in ice cream
Using sodium alginate instead of gelatin, starch and other stabilizers for cold drink food can make the ingredients mixed evenly, easy to mix and dissolve, and can adjust the flow when freezing, so that the ice cream products have a smooth appearance and melting characteristics, but also no need for aging time, the expansion rate is also larger, and the product texture is smooth, delicate, good taste, and the dosage is also lower than the other commonly used stabilizers.
- Application in bakery products
Adding sodium alginate to baked food can make their quality get a big improvement. Used in the production of cookies, egg rolls can reduce its crushing rate, the test result is that the crushing rate can be reduced by 70% to 80%, the appearance of the product is smooth, moisture-proof to improve; when applied to the production of bread, cake can make them get further expansion, volume increase, texture loose, reduce the slicing when falling particle chips, but also to prevent aging, extend the shelf life.
- Application in dairy products and beverages
At present, yogurt as a high nutritional value of cow’s milk is very popular among consumers, and yogurt is also one of the important sources of beneficial lactic acid bacteria. It is to milk by microbial (generally lactic acid bacteria) fermentation, so that it produces a special flavor of dairy products. Fruit juice is sometimes added to it to increase its nutritional value and flavor. Alginate can play a stabilizing effect on yogurt products in a wide pH range, in the range of pH 3.9 to 4.9, can play this role. Frozen buttermilk stabilized with alginate has a good texture without stickiness or stiffness, and is sticky and sluggish when stirred. Alginate can also prevent the phenomenon of viscosity loss in the sterilization process of yogurt products． Add 0.25% to 2% alginate in milk, and its finished products are stored at high temperature for 30d, and its flavor will not change. In addition to yogurt products, other beverages can also use alginate. For example, a crisp, fruity syrup can be made from sodium alginate and saccharin, supplemented with ingredients. These syrups have a smooth, even and good taste and are stable and not easily layered.
- Application in cold food and snacks
Alginate has the ability to form gel easily, so it can be widely used in the production of sweet snacks, specifically for the manufacture of cold milk pudding, pie folder, frozen sweets. Sodium alginate and sugar mixed with water to dissolve, add crushed fruit with color, spices and other additives, and then add edible calcium organic acid salt solution, the formation of gel, in 70 ~ 100 ℃ under the heat for 2 minutes, can be made of delicious fruit sweets.
- Application in pasta products
As sodium alginate has strong hydrophilicity and adhesion, it can be added into noodles, noodles and other noodle products to improve the toughness of the products, reduce the rate of breakage, not sticky after cooking, not rotten soup, storage resistance and good taste. Especially for the flour with low gluten rate, the effect is better.
- Application in beer and other alcoholic beverages
Add sodium alginate in beer can play a stabilizing effect on the beer foam, and transparency is also increased, the preservation period is extended, in other alcoholic beverages such as sake, fruit wines and champagne and other alcoholic beverages often due to the presence of more acid and pigmentation and turbidity, if you add an appropriate amount of sodium alginate, can be very good to play a role in clarification. In addition, alginate can also remove tannins and nitrogenous substances in wine.
- Application in artificial food
The application of alginate can also produce artificial jam, margarine, artificial intestinal coating and artificial fruit and other artificial food. As long as the required sweetener and food coloring, spices into the solution of sodium alginate, mix well, add calcium, in a short time can form a good artificial jam; alginate can be used as a thickener or emulsifier for margarine, usually use propylene glycol alginate, sometimes also use sodium alginate.
