Other items are also up for cost-related replacement. Allin points to specialty starches that “replace tomato solids, reduce egg yolk and soybean oil, which have reached record highs. They also can reduce or stretch the use of expensive ingredients, such as flavorings, by providing a bland, or clean, flavor profile that does not mask flavor intensity.”
Chewing on gums
For over 30 years, the food industry has utilized hydrocolloids, or gums, to improve, enhance or even create texture, and to cut costs. “Gums help to reduce solids, such as protein or sugar,” says Joshua Brooks, vice president sales & marketing, Gum Technology Corporation, Tucson, AZ. “More-cost-effective products can be made utilizing gums to provide body and texture, instead of other ingredients.”
Like starches, gums are polysaccharides, and also exhibit a variety of structural and functional characteristics. Xanthan has become a popular choice for rapid thickening and stability across a range of processing and storage conditions. Solutions thickened with xanthan gum are pseudoplastic, or shear-thinning. Their viscosity will reduce when a certain level of shear is applied.
Brooks suggests that various thickening agents share molecular similarities with xanthan and can have similar functional behavior. Galactomannans—locust bean gum (LBG), guar gum, fenugreek gum and tara gum, for example—may substitute for each other in certain applications. “Blends of xanthan, arabic and carrageenan can provide the smooth, creamy texture and strong emulsifying properties of gum tragacanth and proplylene glycol alginate, and are more readily available and less expensive,” he says.
Carrageenans provide additional opportunities for texture modification. These unique gums are divided into three main types. Kappa carrageenans form strong, rigid gels. Iota carrageenan gels are soft, elastic and less prone to syneresis. Lambda carrageenans do not form gels, but do provide thickening effects.
In use, these fractions are often blended together to create specific textural attributes. They may also be blended with other hydrocolloids to improve organoleptic and economic properties of a formulation. Rigid kappa carrageenan gels exhibit increased elasticity and reduced weeping with the addition of LBG. Gels made from kappa carrageenan and LBG are similar to those achieved with iota carrageenan alone. Developers may be able to substitute the combination to create elastic gel character at lower cost than that of iota carrageenan.
“Specially developed stabilizer systems combining xanthan and guar with other ingredients, such as whey, can replace up to 50% of the eggs in a cake formulation,” says Brooks. “Such a blend provides the extra body of the removed eggs at about one-half the per pound cost.”
R. J. Foster is a wordsmith with a B.S. in food science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and over 15 years of experience in the food industry. He can be reached through his website,
wordsmithingbyfoster.com.