What is Curdlan Gum | Curdlan in Food

要旨

As a new type of food additive, curdlan gum can be used in pasta products, meat products, bionic foods and other foods. It has become a shining star among edible gums and is getting more and more attention from food companies and consumers.

1. What is Curdlan?

Curdlan gum is also known as thermal gel or coagulation polysaccharide.

It is also one of the edible gums. As a new type of food additive, it has unique thermal irreversible gel characteristics and high product quality, and it is very safe and healthy to add in food, so it has become a new star among food thickeners and has received attention from food companies and consumers.

Curdlan gum can achieve a variety of magical effects in food, next we will introduce you to three important uses of curdlan in food

2. Curdlan in Food

2.1 Curdlan Gum in Meat Products

Curdlan gum is mainly used in meat products such as ham and sausages.

Usually, before processing, meat must go through low-temperature curing, tumbling, chopping and other processes, under the action of salt and phosphate, so that the myofibrillar protein in the meat is well dissolved, and the dissolved protein is fully integrated with starch and meat tissue components, and the products are heat-treated and the protein is denatured and solidified, so as to get a smooth and pleasant taste of meat products.

The heating temperature of ham and sausage products is above 80?, which is just enough to meet the temperature of irreversible gel formation between curdlan gum and meat protein.

A small amount of curdlan gum fills into a large amount of meat protein gel structure, which plays a stable role in supporting the structure system, making the gel structure formed by meat protein more firm, smooth and delicate, and enhancing the taste of meat in the mouth.

At the same time, curdlan gum gel has a very obvious effect on increasing the oil retention rate of products, reducing the appearance of oil holes, improving the slicability of products and reducing the rough taste of starch.

2.2 Curdlan Gum in Rice and Noodle Products

Curdlan gum in rice and noodle products can promote cross-linking within and between gluten protein molecules, promote cross-linking between proteins and amino acids, and make dispersed proteins in granular state into a net-like cross-linked state to enhance the body and chewiness of noodle products.

Relying on the principle of heat-forming gum, curdlan gum is also used in jams, sauces, fruit jellies and other sauces, making it possible to extend the shelf life of products without precipitation of free water during the heating process and cooling storage, and making the structural system more stable.

In addition, because the ?-1,3-glucan of curdlan is not easily degraded by human digestive enzymes, it provides a large amount of easily available and high quality raw materials for the production of new low-calorie foods such as diet foods. Researchers and developers in this field may want to try out the multi-functional benefits of curdlan gum.

2.3 Curdlan Gum in Bionic Food

Curdlan gum can imitate natural marine food in terms of appearance and taste, and its price is low, and its appearance and taste are very much like natural food, such as simulated bionic abalone, simulated shark fin, artificial sea cucumber and so on.

The earliest successful application of curdlan gum is this kind of food, because the suspension of curdlan gum can form an irreversible tasteless and odorless gel after heating, and the strength of the gel increases with the increase of heating temperature and adding concentration;

What is Curdlan Gum Gel The gel of curdlan gum has strong stability to heat, and the melting point of the gel is over 140?, which is stable under high temperature heating conditions such as cooking, frying and microwave oven in food processing and kitchen cooking.

These characteristics meet the requirements of being the structural body of bionic food. In bionic food, curdlan gum is used as the structural body, and the dosage generally reaches 5% or more, and the shape, structure and flavor of the bionic food made can be comparable to natural abalone and sea cucumber.