Baking & Snack - July 2019 - 54

GUMS AND STABILIZERS

By binding water, gums help
with shelf life, freeze-thaw
stability and improve icings and
glazes' texture and quality.

emulsifier in products that contain fat or oil."
When it comes to icing, agar is a go-to gum that
brings a lot of benefits to the formulation. It holds water,
prevents brittleness and has a low gelling temperature.
"At the plant, you're generally applying icing at an elevated temperature, and the fact that agar gels at a lower
temperature gives you a bit more time because it's not
setting up right away," Mr. Gennrich said.
Agar is also thermo reversible. This means that at
high temperatures, the gum is not very viscous, but as it
cools, it thickens up. "But if you warm the agar up again,
it thins out again," he explained. "When you're depositing it, that can be helpful."
While Mr. Gennrich referred to agar as the workhorse
of gums, there are others that may be more suitable for different baked goods or processing parameters. Alginates,
for example, are cold-soluble. Unlike agar, which must be
hydrated at an elevated temperature, alginate doesn't need
to be boiled to become fully hydrated. The gum still holds
water at a low usage rate, making it cost-effective.
Many gums work well in combination. Agar, for all its
benefits, works well with locust bean gum to improve functionality. "They do have synergy together," Mr. Gennrich
said. "They help reduce syneresis or watering out."
Gums can also be a part of stabilizing systems, which
include other ingredients such as drying agents and water
conditioners, to improve set times and sheen and prevent
crystallization. "Gums will often be added as part of a stabilizer blend, which helps to disperse them," Dr. Boutte said.
Calcium carbonate or calcium sulfate can speed up
set times, which accelerates production and prevents icings from being smudged during packaging. Di-sodium
phosphate or sodium hexametaphosphate can be used
as buffer and water conditioners. Maltodextrin is also a
common ingredient in stabilizer systems for increasing
sheen and preventing crystallization.
"Preventing crystallization is key in icing and glazes
because these are combinations of dissolved and undissolved sugars," Mr. Gennrich explained. The first part of
icing or glaze production is warming sugar, water and a
stabilizing blend to create a syrup - the dissolved sugar.
The second part is adding in an undissolved sugar, typically a powdered sugar.
"In that temperature transition from when you make
the syrup to adding the undissolved sugar, if you're not
cooling it down fast enough, you can actually start to
dissolve the powdered sugar, which you don't want because that increases your chances of crystallization,"
Mr. Gennrich continued. "A stabilizing system can help
prevent that."
Gums and stabilizers can help improve an icing or glaze's ability to be processed
on commercial equipment without harming texture or consistency.
Agropur

54 Baking & Snack July 2019 / www.bakingandsnack.com

http://www.bakingandsnack.com

Baking & Snack - July 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Baking & Snack - July 2019