Blandina FT5(14212019)

Food Processing Tech.

Alginate
Alginic acid, also called algin or alginate, is an anionic polysaccharide distributed
widely in the cell walls of brown algae, where through
binding with water it forms a viscous gum. In extracted
form it absorbs water quickly; it is capable of absorbing
200-300 times its own weight in water. Its color ranges
from white to yellowish-brown. It is sold in filamentous,
granular or powdered forms.
Alginates are refined from brown seaweeds. A wide variety
of

brown seaweeds of

the

phylum Phaeophyceae are

harvested throughout the world to be converted into the

raw material commonly known as sodium alginate.
Sodium alginate has a wide use across a wide variety of
industries including food, textile printing & pharmaceutical.
Dental impression material utilizes alginate as its means of
gelling. Alginate is both food and skin safe.
Alginates from different species of brown seaweed often
have variations in their chemical structure, resulting in
different physical properties. For example, some may yield
an alginate that gives a strong gel, another weaker gel; one
may readily give a cream/white alginate, another may give
that only with difficulty and is best used for technical
applications where color does not matter.
One of the product use sodium alginate is alginate beads
(calcium Alginate) which created through the addition of aqueous calcium chloride to
aqueous sodium alginate. It is a water-insoluble, gelatinous substance.
This usually use for beverage, appetizers, dessert and
topping which already added by coloring or flavor. Beside
that it can also use as enzyme package when through
catalytic reaction, so the enzyme are easily take back
again after reaction with substrate.