Gellan Gum Buying Guide-FAQs about buying Gellan Gum
Gellan gum, also known as Kelcogel, is produced through pure culture fermentation of carbohydrates by Pseudomonas elodea, followed by fermentation, pH adjustment, clarification, precipitation, pressing, drying, and grinding. Gellan gum possesses excellent stability characteristics, including acid resistance, heat resistance, thermal reversibility, and microbial and enzymatic activity resistance. It is a bacterial exopolysaccharide with valuable functional properties for thickening, gelling, stabilizing, and encapsulating in food products, medicines (soft and hard gelatin capsules), cosmetics, the chemical industry, and other fields. This gellan gum buying guide will address frequently asked questions about buying gellan gum.
What is Gellan Gum?​
What is gellan gum made from? Gellan gum is microbial metabolic gum obtained from Sphingomonas elodea, a gram-negative bacterium isolated from water lily with glucose, sucrose, maltose, and other simple sugars as substrates for the formation of extracellular polysaccharides. In its pure form, it looks like a small off-white powder, which does not possess any distinct locale or smell.
Gellan gum decomposes directly at 150°C and possesses excellent stability characteristics, including acid resistance, heat resistance, thermal reversibility, and microbial and enzymatic activity resistance. Gellan gum exists in two forms: one of which is known as high-acyl gellan gum (HA) and the other one is known as low-acyl gellan gum (LA). The gelling properties are highly dependent on acyl content. In general, the gellan gum produced directly by the action of microorganisms is highly esterified with acyl groups including acetyl and glyceryl, the product is defined as high acyl gellan gum or natural gellan gum.
High-acyl gellan gum (HA) is obtained from Sphingomonas paucimobilis fermentation without deacylation treatment. Low-acyl gellan gum (LA) is obtained by removing all or part of the acyl groups from the molecular structure (also known as deacylated gellan gum).
Gellan Gum Properties
Gellan Gum Gelation Properties​
Gellan gum can be evenly and easily wet in cold water, with slight agitation, and dissolves in hot water to give a clear solution. It solidifies in a transparent, firm gel upon cooling, thus becoming a new class of non-sticky fully transparent gelator in the group of food additives. Gellan gum is soluble in hot deionized water or in low ionic strength solutions with included chelating agents to prepare neutral water solutions and exhibits excellent gelling properties. Cold set gellan gum gel is gelled in the temperature range of 20-50°C and the melting temperature of gellan gum gel prepared at cold setting is between 65-120°C. The melting temperature is higher than the gelling temperature which suggests that gellan gum possesses the appreciable amount of temperature hysteresis.
Gellan gum can be gradually used as a gelling agent and gradually replace agar and carrageenan because of their better gelling characteristics.
Gellan Gum Safety
Gellan gum is a bioactive polysaccharide gum prepared from microbial aerobic fermentation, Gellan gum has no toxicity, no smell, and it does not need a specific ADI (Acceptable Daily Intake), and it is highly recognized in the fields of food, biopharmaceuticals, daily chemical industry, papermaking, and other industries.
Food rich in gellan gum includes dairy products, vegan sweets, and ice creams containing this element due to its gelling ability.
Thermal Stability
It is noteworthy that gellan gum possesses the unique property of high thermal stability. Comparing their gel strengths when gellan gum and agar are heated at 121°C for fifteen minutes under six thermic cycles, gellan gum retains about 50% strength while agar has only 26%.
Acid and Alkali Resistance
Gellan gum is also used in food processing but while most foods are found to have a pH value of 4-8, gellan gum is good for use with a pH value of 3.5-8. The gel strength does not alter with pH fluctuations making it better in gelling than equivalent food additives.
Good Compatibility
Gellan gum can be used in combination with non-gelling water-soluble gums like xanthan gum, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), locust bean gum, and guar gum and thus obtain products with good texture interfere less with the gellan gum gel. While carrageenan and agar are used for gelling, they are less effective than gellan gum in terms of regard to flavor, product transparency, and amount of usage.
Applications of Gellan Gum
1. Food Applications: What are the uses of gellan gum in food​? Puddings, beverages, confectionery, jams, jellies, synthetic foods, pet foods, sugar coatings, frosting, milk products, and bakery products.
2. Pharmaceutical Applications: Eye drops, soft and hard capsules, coating agents, tissue engineering, and wound dressings.
3. Microbiological Applications: Replacement for agar in culture media preparation.
4. Daily Chemical Applications: Cosmetics, toothpaste, perfumes, films, adhesives, car air fresheners, air fresheners, and personal care products.
5. Agricultural Applications: Foliar fertilizers, controlled-release fertilizers.
6. Industrial Applications: Miscellaneous uses, uses in human ‘tissues’ products, in photosensitizing films, in encapsulation of heat sensitive products for example enzymes and cells, in DNA Electrophoresis and separation reversible gels, use in films, photographic films, and fibers.
Food Grade Gellan Gum
For the food industry, food-grade gellan gum can act as an ideal gelling agent since it will make the food texture and mouth feel appealing. It has obvious superiority over carrageenan, agar, and other gelling polysaccharides in aspects of acid resistance, heat reconfigurability, and dosage. Gellan gum makes a hard gel that can easily be broken by sheer force, giving the mouth a feel of a quick melt besides being diabetic-friendly. Flavor release performance and thermal stability of gellan gum make it suitable for behavioral textural transitions over quite a wide pH scale. It can also be used for the modification of food texture, physical stability of liquid nutritional products, and water-holding capacity during food cooking and storage.
Gellan gum has great synergism with other food gums to build stability or alter texture if matched appropriately. Further, it can transform the starch to get favorable characteristics with regard to texture and stability.
Further reading: Gellan Gum Uses in Food
Pharmaceutical Grade Gellan Gum
The biologically inactive quality of gellan gum is a precondition for the use of this product in the pharmaceutical industry. Based on the fact that gellan gum is a biomaterial, it is applied in medical tissue engineering, particularly as a supporter of cell transplant. When used in ophthalmic preparations, it not only increases the retention time of eye drops in the eye, improving bioavailability, but the formed gel also makes it difficult for drugs to flow into the nasolacrimal duct, reducing adverse reactions caused by drug flow into the nasal cavity.
Daily Chemical Grade Gellan Gum
Daily chemical gellan gum with 15A demonstrates vital characteristics including high gelling capacity, excellent transparency, stability, solubility, water holding capacity, and compatibility with other hydrophilic colloids respectively to meet different texture profiles. As a versatile chemical additive, it can be found in many daily chemicals like toothpaste, cosmetics fragrances, etc. It is also used as a thickening agent in toothpaste so it can make and enhance the product quality and performance as one of the best thickening materials. Said toothpaste has also good fragrance release characteristics which leads to a decrease in the amount of used fragrance.
Where to Buy Gellan Gum?
To source gellan gum accurately it is important to contact food additives manufacturers who know the technical application of the product and the quality they should produce. Mondstar is your solution provider, we assist you with free trial samples, technical consultation of applications, and best usage advice. Our gellan gum source providers are among the top producers across the globe and we are in a position to ensure that you get your order on time to reach production lines. The Mondstar technical team also stands by to assist with suitable grade recommendations as well as use. If you need gellan gum samples or any special advice, please do not hesitate to contact us, so that you can obtain the appropriate gellan gum for your uses.
Gellan Gum Storage
Gellan gum is usually supplied in paper drums with plastic bags so it is highly hygroscopic. It is hygroscopic and thus when stored inappropriately, it can garner clumps and considerably reduce the quality of the product. To ensure that it performs well gellan gum should be stored in a cool warehouse; with a temperature of about 25°C (77°F) and relative humidity of not more than 65%.
Drums should always be stored on pallets, thus avoiding direct contact with the ground since this will lead to the absorption of moisture. Open packages should be transferred to moisture-proof packages or the original packages should be sealed tightly. These changes are checked occasionally for moisture-induced caking or color changes to keep the gellan gum powder with its effective gelling properties in mind the 24-month shelf life.
Conclusion
Mondstar brings over a decade of experience in food additive distribution, offering not just quality gellan gum, but also comprehensive technical support and reliable supply chain solutions. With Mondstar’s expertise as a gellan gum supplier in both high-acyl gellan gum and low-acyl gellan gum applications, you can be confident in finding the right solution for your specific needs. Contact Mondstar today to discover how our professional support can enhance your product development and ensure consistent quality in your applications.
