What is the thickener?

Nowadays, there are lots of added thickener in foods, such as yogurt, ice cream, jelly, etc. What exactly is a thickening agent? Thickeners that is added to food is natural or synthetic ?

What is a thickening agent used in food?

Thickeners is also called gelling agents. It increases material viscosity and makes the material keep stable hover state, opaque State or gel formation. Food thickener is a food additive that is mainly used to improve and increase consistency of food, keep the color, aroma, taste and stability of flow food or gel food, improve physical properties of food, and lubricates the food.

In the modern food industry, processed food can not exist without food additives. Of course,  as long as the added additives meet the requirements and the use of the dose is not exceeded, then toxic and harmful situation will not be exist. Thickening agent is allowed to add to grain and grain products, dairy products, fat, oil, frozen drinks, fruit products, candy, starch products, cake, meat and meat products, aquatic products, syrup, condiments, beverage, wine, etc. The most commonly used in beverage production thickeners are alginate propylene glycol, carrageenan, xanthan gum, pectin, guar guar gum, locust bean gum, etc, and starch, modified starch, gelatin and sodium alginate, jelly, ice cream in common have sodium alginate, carrageenan and xanthan gum are commonly used  in meat products.

What is the role of adding thickener in food?

Thickeners can improve food viscosity and make raw materials more easily extruded from the container or better adhesion in food. The silky texture makes it popular in food industry. Such as cellulose thickener used in ice cream can increase its degree of swelling and improve the melting speed, it has adhesive function in the processing of  fish, meat and isopiestic mold food. Some good  hydrophilic thickening agent can maintain the moisture as well as enhance or improve the food taste when added to meat products, bread, cakes, noodles and other foods. Add the thickening agent to jelly, syrup, candy, artificial seasoning seafood and other products can enhance gelation. In short, the purpose of adding food thickener can be summarized as: thickening, stability, gel, water retention, etc.

Is food thickener safe?

In fact, the use of food thickeners are  often more complex. They themselves are non-toxic or harmless, but easily to raise blood sugar, and may even lead to severe blood sugar response. Sugar free yogurt causes some consumers blood sugar increase.  It is likely to be caused by the thickening agent, rather than the inherent lactose ingredients in milk. Because the natural lactose does not cause rapid increase in blood sugar. Therefore, we must read the ingredients list carefully before the purchase of sugar free products, and beware of the impact of the thickening agent on blood sugar.

Source: http://okfoodadd.blogspot.hk/2015/08/why-xanthan-gum-is-common-in-life.html.