Natural gums are polysaccharides of natural origin, found most often in the woody element of a plant or in seed coatings or from marine botanicals. Gums are used for thickening, gelling, emulsifying, encapsulating and stabilizing in the food and confectionary industries. They are also used as adhesives, binding, clarifying, swelling, (etc) agents in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, paint and printing industries, as they cause a large increase in the viscosity of a solution.
In cooking, gums can be used to thicken liquids and prevent clumping in powdered beverages when reconstituting the powder into a liquid. They also supply fibre, which may be soluble or insoluble. They can take on the function of gluten in gluten free products, improving texture and crumb. Gums can also be used to prevent individual ingredients from separating and can improve the texture of low fat products. When used as food additives, they are allocated E numbers under the EU Directive 95/2/EC (Feb 1995), which provides a definition for their applications.
Emulsifiers
are substances which make it possible to form or maintain a homogenous mixture of two or more immiscible phases such as oil and water in a foodstuff.
Gelling agents
are substances which give a foodstuff texture through formation of a gel.
Thickeners
are substances which increase the viscosity of a foodstuff.
Stabilisers
are substances which make it possible to maintain th
e physico-chemical state of a foodstuff, they include substances which help to maintain a homogenous dispersion of two or more immiscible substances in a foodstuff and include also substances which stabilise, retain or intensify an existing colour of a foodstuff.
