Function Of Food Thickener

Food thickener plays an important role in maintaining the color, aroma, taste, structure and stability of liquid food and gel food.

Thickener in food is mainly to give the rheological properties required by food, change the texture and appearance of food, form liquid and paste food into specific form, and make it stable and uniform, improve the quality of food, so as to make food have the feeling of sticky, smooth and palatable. For example, the quality of ice cream and ice point center largely depends on the formation state of ice crystals. Adding thickeners can prevent the formation of too large ice crystals, so as not to feel rough and dregs.

Thickener has the characteristics of water-soluble and stable, which can make the ice crystal produced in the freezing process of food fine and contain a large number of micro bubbles, so that its structure is fine and uniform, the taste is smooth, and the appearance is neat. When the thickener is used in jam, granular food, canned food, soft drink and margarine, the product has satisfactory consistency. When organic acid is added to milk or fermented milk, it will cause the coagulation and precipitation of milk protein, which is a serious problem in yoghurt beverage. But after adding thickener, the product can be uniform and stable.

The gelation of thickening agents is based on its gelatinization. When the system has a specific molecular structure thickener, the concentration reaches a certain value, and the composition of the system reaches certain requirements, the system can form gels. The gel is a three-dimensional network structure. The crosslinking and chelating of these macromolecular chains and the strong affinity between the thickener molecules and solvents are conducive to the formation of this spatial network structure, and facilitate the formation of gels. Some thickeners.