SEAWEED BASED HYDROCOLLOIDS

Seaweed Based Hydrocolloids

Hydrocolloid gums are the most effective carbohydrate based fat replacers having

ability to control the rheology of water based systems and syneresis inhibition. These are added

to dairy products to stabilize their structure, enhance viscosity and alter texture characteristics.

Agar, carrageenan, and alginate are high value seaweed hydrocolloids which are well known

as gelation and thickening agents in different food (Murtaza, 2017). Agar powder is one of the

most popular seaweed powder based hydrocolloids Agar-Agar is a natural hydrocolloid

obrained from the red seaweeds, Gelidium and Gracilaria. Gelidium algae is harvested on the

atlantic coastline, and Gracilaria algae come from the coastlines of Chile or east Asian countries

(Somboon, 2014). Agar is composed of agarose, a neutral polysaccharide, and agar pectin, a

charged polymer. Agar can tolerate heat up to 900C, which brings many concrete advantages

to the food manufacturers because of the high thermic stability of the gel (Benech, 2012). The

thermal stability of agar brings numerous opportunities of using agar within the kitchen.

Moreover, the application can be adapted to everywhere. In Asian country, Asian people love

to eat their meat stews with hot rice or noodles. Furthermore, this traditional dishes can be

translated in modernized style by using the agar powder. Instead of just simply mixing rice

with liquid from a stew, the stew can be formed as a gel by using agar. Then, it can coat the

surface of the hot rice. Since a gel formed by gelatin can tolerate hear up to 300C, agar has

more opportunities to be used within the kitchen. Moreover, agar can be used to stabilize

commercial products. Maltose degrading enzyme is immobilized within agar support. Using

agar showed 60 % residual activity, whereas it shows 100% original activity without usage of

agar (Nawaz, 2015). For these reasons, agar can be used to stabilized products based on

maltose, such as cereal bars, energy bars, bagels, pies, and sweet potatoes. When the

ingredients are conflicted with enzymes, and degraded, additional agar can reduce the activity

of enzymes and stabilize products. Alginate can be used to increase hardness and reduce water

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activity and moisture content. Osmotic dehydration is one of food preservation techniques in

the processing of dehydrated foods, reducing the damage of heat to the flavor, color, inhibiting

the browning of enzymes and decrease the energy cost. Moroevoer, additional small quantity

of alginate led to higher dehydration rate (Jansrimanee, 2017). To apply this within the kitchen,

ingredients can be cut and coated with small quantity of dispersed water with agar. The coated

vegetables will have more hardness and low water activity, which will increase the shelf life

of the ingredients since water plays an important role in increasing the population of bacteria.

Carrageenan is another example of red seaweed based on hydrocolloid. It can be widely used

in the food industry for gelling, thickening, and stabilizer. Additional carrageenan for deep

flying batter results in significant reduction of fat absorption during deep fat frying carrageenan

holds the meat particles together and resists changes in the shape of the product and because

of ability of carrageenan to form complex with water and protein (Modi, 2009). In terms of

that, using carrageenan will increase crispiness of the deep fried ingredients while reducing the

fat absorption. This application can be applied to any ingredient call for deep frying.

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References

Bénech, A. (2012). AGAR-AGAR--Seaweed hydrocolloid as a gelatin alternative in dairy

applications. Wellness Foods Europe, (1), 8-12.

Jansrimanee, S., & Lertworasirikul, S. (2017). Effect of sodium alginate coating on osmotic
dehydration of pumpkin. International Food Research Journal, 24(5), 1903-1909.

Murtaza, M. S., Sameen, A., Huma, N., & Hussain, F. (2017). Influence of Hydrocolloid Gums
on Textural, Functional and Sensory Properties of Low Fat Cheddar Cheese from Buffalo Milk.
Pakistan Journal Of Zoology, 49(1), 27-34. doi:10.17582/journal.pjz/2017.49.1.27.34

Modi, V. K., Yashoda, K. P., & Naveen, S. K. (2009). Effect of Carrageenan and Oat Flour on
Quality Characteristics of Meat Kofta. International Journal Of Food Properties, 12(1), 228-
242. doi:10.1080/10942910802252155

Nawaz, M., Karim, A., Aman, A., Marchetti, R., Qader, S., & Molinaro, A. (2015). Continuous
degradation of maltose: improvement in stability and catalytic properties of maltase (α-
glucosidase) through immobilization using agar-agar gel as a support. Bioprocess &
Biosystems Engineering, 38(4), 631-638. doi:10.1007/s00449-014-1302-6

Somboon, N., Karrila, T. T., Kaewmanee, T., & Karrila, S. J. (2014). Properties of gels from
mixed agar and fish gelatin. International Food Research Journal, 21(2), 485-492.

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