Baking & Snack - August 2014 - 54

GUMS & HYDROCOLLOIDS

While cookies don't require gluten
for structure, gums will help them
stand up to the stress of handling.
Shutterstock

Food gums derived from plants, including seaweed,
have an added advantage. "None of these are GMO," reported Rodger Jonas, technical director, food and beverage, and senior account manager, PLT Health Solutions,
Morristown, NJ. "But you should follow up with your
sources and be thorough about their supply chains."
Because this ingredient category is so versatile, it has
seen bakery use increase in recent years. Being products
of nature, a number of conditions affect the size of the
harvest and their availability, explained Dan Inman, director of R&D, J. Rettenmaier USA LP, Schoolcraft, MI.
He also noted that competing large industrial applications - notably, the oil industry's use of guar in fracking
- could also affect the availability and price of hydrocolloids supplied to the food industry. "These dramatic
changes in supply cause a shift from the use of one hydrocolloid to another," he said.

Continuum of properties
The words gums and hydrocolloids are
not exactly synonymous, but they
are used that way by the food industry. These ingredients vary
widely in sources and properties. Food gums come in six
categories: cellulosic, microbial, plant extracts, plant exudates, seaweed extracts and
seed sources.
The cellulosic hydrocolloids
are carboxymethyl cellulose
(CMC), hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC), hydroxypropopyl methylcellulose
(HPMC), methylcellulose
(MC) and microcrystalline
cellulose (MCC). Crudlan,
gellan and xanthan gums
are produced by microbial
fermentation.
Plants provide the rest,
which include extracts
(konjac and pectin) and
exudates (arabic, acacia,
ghatti, karaya and tragacanth).
Fenugreek, guar, locust bean
(carob), psyllium, tara and flax seeds
yield gums, and seaweed is the source for
alginate, carrageenan and furcellaran.
For a long time, guar has been the baker's "go to"
gum. "It is a good ingredient for standard baked foods
where it improves shelf life without compromising the
texture of bread," Dr. Caremoli said. "So, formulators

54 Baking & Snack August 2014 / www.bakingandsnack.com

start with guar because it is a known material. In glutenfree products, it contributes the structure to replace the
gluten protein network."
Shifting away from guar, formulators turned to gums
derived from seeds of locust bean and tara. "Locust
needs to be supported by other gums," Dr. Caremoli observed. "In some applications, tara is similar to locust
bean, but it has only limited ability to maintain volume."
Psyllium, derived from the seeds of an herb, is new to
the gums category. "This natural ingredient can have a
huge impact on gluten-free foods," Dr. Caremoli said. It
also benefits foods by contributing soluble dietary fiber.
In addition to their insoluble dietary fiber content,
the gums derived from plant cellulose exhibit interesting
thermal properties. CMC helps improve crumb quality, according to Ana Maria Garavito Rojas, food scientist, Gum Technology, a business unit of Penford Food
Ingredients, Tucson, AZ. She described what happens
when HPMC is heated. "[Its] thermal gelation behavior is advantageous since the ability to gel upon heating mirrors gluten's behavior during baking: It sets firm,
therefore holding the baked mass and preventing it from
collapsing," she said.

Performance needs
When approaching a gluten-free project, bakery formulators need to identify the role that gluten would
otherwise play. Different baked goods require different
degrees of gluten development, which is controlled by
the amount of protein present in the wheat flour and the
degree of mixing.
Some items lend themselves to gluten replacement
better than others. Cookies, for example, don't need
gluten development, but bread does. "Breads and other
types of yeast-raised doughs need gluten development
for strength and gas-retaining ability that produces
a light and airy interior structure and a moist, flexible
crumb," Mr. Inman said. "In addition to replacing the
wheat flour with gluten-free flour, other ingredients can
hold gas. These products include egg whites, hydrocolloids and functional celluloses."
Another issue is staling, and many gluten-free baked
foods experience severe staling, especially when shipped
frozen, according to Troy Boutte, PhD, group manager,
bakery/fats and oils, DuPont Nutrition & Health, New
Century, KS. These goods pass through 40°F, the optimum temperature for starch crystallization, a.k.a. staling, during freezing and thawing. Because most glutenfree items are also clean-label, they can't use the standard
anti-staling and preservative ingredients, he added.
"Hydrocolloids do significantly reduce the impact of
freezing and are also very useful for products that aren't
frozen," Dr. Boutte said. The company's CMC, xanthan

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