Today’s food industry faces the growing challenge of delivering premium taste and texture to customers facing economic challenges. Thankfully, colloidal science is also growing, providing an array of products that help create rich mouthfeel on a tight budget.
Pectins, for example, can cost-effectively recreate viscosity and mouthfeel lost with the removal of sugar or fruit pulp in beverages. Similarly, pectins in powdered beverage mixes lend a fresh-juice mouthfeel.
Pectins are distinguished by the percentage of carboxylic acid groups that are “esterified”—that is, in the methyl ester form. Pectins with greater than a 50% degree of esterification, or DE, are “high methoxyl” (HM), while those with a DE lower than 50% are considered “low methoxyl” (LM). HM pectins gel with high solids and low pH. LM pectins gel by calcium cross-linking.
Recent studies at the Putra University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, have shown pectin to be a viable replacement for gum arabic, a stabilizer that has seen fluctuations in supply and cost. Hamed Mirhosseini, the studies’ lead author, says of the present study (Carbohydrate Polymers, July 2008; 73(1):83–91), “The substitution of 20% arabic gum with high pectin concentration (three or four percent weight for weight) resulted in a better storage stability, thus ensuring the adequacy of pectin as a potential replacer for arabic gum in the formulation of orange beverage emulsion.”
A study conducted by the Chinese Ministry of Education and Southern Yangtze University, Wuxi, China, and published online by LWT Food Science and Technology in Jan. 2007 (“Rheological, texture and sensory properties of low-fat mayonnaise with different fat mimetics”) indicates microparticulated LM pectin may improve the acceptability of low-fat mayonnaise products while lowering costs by replacing traditional emulsifiers, such as dairy proteins or egg yolk.
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.