Applications of K-Carrageenan Gel System in Biscuit Sandwich Jam

Because of the processing characteristics and application requirements, the sandwich biscuit jam should have strong solidification at normal temperature, and become soft when heated to a certain temperature, and be easy to be poured into jam.

In addition, due to the long shelf life of biscuit products, jam must also have the strong freeze-thaw stability in order to adapt to the different temperature environment.

Therefore, adding of K-carrageenan to the biscuit sandwich jam is expected to improve the freeze-thaw stability and better adapt to different temperature environments.

So,

What are the Applications of K-Carrageenan Gel System in Sandwich Biscuit Jam?

With the increase of the Potassium Citrate content, not only the gel strength, but also the transparency and water holding capacity of Carrageenan will be gradually strengthened,

but the strength of Carrageenan Gel decreased sharply when the content of Potassium Citrate is further increased above than 1.5% , and the transparency is getting worse too.

WHY?

This is because the gel system of carrageenan is a multi-disperse system, excessive K + will accelerate the aging process of GEL, release free water, make the GEL shrinkage and dehydration, resulting in a decline in gel strength.

When Ph is below 4.5, the strength of Carrageenan Gel decreases greatly because of the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of Carrageenan Gel polysaccharide. When Ph is higher than 4.5, the GEL strength tends to be stable.

Generally the Ph of biscuit sandwich jam is 4.0 - 5.0, but there are also some jam with Ph less than 4 because of the high content of pulp and juice, but considering the cost of biscuits, manufacturers seldom use this kind of jam.

With the increase of temperature, the hardness and viscosity of jam gradually decreased.

In the temperature range from 27 °C to 50 °C, the hardness changes obviously.

Due to the thermal sensitivity of the Syrup and the thermal reversibility of the GEL system, the jam is relatively sensitive to temperature and can be softened gradually by heating within this temperature range.

According to the experimental observation within this temperature range, even if the biscuit is placed vertically, the jam does not overflow, the solidification state is still good.

The reason is that when Ph is 4.4, the GEL temperature of K-carrageenan is 60.59 °C, that is, when the temperature is lower than 60.5 °c, the jam can still keep the Gel form, so as not to dilute and produce fluidity.

With the temperature rising above 50 °C, after reaching 60 °C, the thermal reversibility of the GEL is fully displayed, the jam has fluidity, and the difference of the hardness of the jam is small under each temperature.

According to the experimental observation, when the temperature reaches 60.5 °c, the jam get optimal performance which can be filled, and has better fluidity, low viscosity and short wire drawing.

Compared with the blank group, the hardness and viscosity of the jam decreased slightly after 5 and 10 times of freezing and thawing treatments, it indicates that:

The jam could adapt to the lower temperature environment;

It is not prone to dehydration and aging;

It has good freeze-thaw stability.