Sodium+Alginate

**II. Food Industry ** **A. Stabilizer ** -when used as a stabilizer in ice cream, sodium alginate can avoid forming of ice crystals and will make the product tastier. B. Thickener and Emulsion -can raise stabilization and decrease liquid when used in cold dishes, sweet pastry and canned products. C. Hydration - can make noodle, vermicelli or ice powder have strong cohesiveness, pulling, bending and reduce breaking, specially suitable in the less gluten content of wheat flour. D. Coacervation -can be used to keep gel-like products in a fine state. Can also be used as covering for fruit, meat and seaweed products to keep air out and longer storage. //**Sodium Alginate **// is an interesting ingredient in a majority of food products that the urban world is consuming. It is a compound comprised of alginate and sodium derivative. However, not many would have expected it to come from typical seaweed. //Kelp // or// brown seaweeds // are where alginates can be extracted from. The extract undergoes a complex process and eventually becomes the ingredient that the food industry is so familiar with. When it is extracted from brown algae, it then becomes purified carbohydrate and results into a thick substance. //The Many Uses of Sodium Alginate in Food // What is responsible for its many uses are its special properties particularly its ability to thicken easily and become viscous quickly once it is dissolved in cold or hot water. Another beneficial property is that it forms into a gel once in contact with //calcium //. In contrast with //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">agar-agar gel, sodium alginate // can thicken even when dissolved with a cold solution. //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Sodium alginate //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;"> is popularly used as an additive in popular foods like ice cream and caviar. It is used as a flavor and taste enhancer. It is also a common ingredient used for increasing the thickness of gravy and tapioca. //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Processed foods // too have a high percentage of sodium alginate. Its thickening properties are so essential in the cooking industry especially in syrups, sauces, and some milk products. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Apart from its //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">thickening properties, // sodium alginate is also used as n effective anti-settling or stabilizer for milkshakes and ice creams. As an ice cream stabilizer, it is known to replace ingredients such as //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">carrageenan and starch //. What makes it useful in ice cream making is that it can prevent ice crystals and make the product tastier. It also helps in emulsifying and stabilizing a variety of salad dressing, tomato ketchup, canned products, and pudding jam. When used in dairy products such as //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">all purpose cream, dry cheese, and refined cheese //, it prevents the finished product from sticking to the product. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Furthermore, it can be used for creative cuisine applications. //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Chef Ferran Adria //, a Catalan Chef popularized a process known as //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">spherification process // which greatly involves the use of sodium alginate. This process involves the formation of a gelatinous wall surrounding a liquid sphere. These spheres will then magically burst in the mouth. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">The compound is also commonly used as an ingredient for making //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">vermicelli and noodle // since it offers a strong cohesiveness property giving way for lesser breakage. Thus, it makes noodles more flexible and more fun to eat. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Sodium Alginate is extracted from brown seaweed (Laminaria, Macrocystis). After harvesting seaweed is dried, ground and washed then processed into whitish flour. Alginate has been widely used for many years. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Alginate is a food gelling agent. It is indigestible but provides a gel without heating when calcium ions are added. The gel sets rapidly. For some applications it is necessary to inhibit the rate of gelation. This is achieved by addition of other ingredients. Alginate forms irreversible gels that are heat stable. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Use Alginate at a concentration of between 2- 10 g per kg of solution depending on the firmness of the gel that is required. Sprinkle alginate into the vortex of a rapidly mixed solution. To improve dispersion premix with another dried ingredient such as sugar (3 - 5 times its weight). <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Two methods are standard for making alginate gels:Using a setting bath or by contact diffusion: An alginate solution is mixed with the cross-linking agent – typically Calcium Chloride. The alginate solution may be immersed in a bath of CaCl2 or dropped as individual spheres into the CaCl2 bath. The alginate solution hardens in the presence of calcium ions, setting starting at the outer surface and proceeding until eventually all the alginate solution has gelled. Generally speaking, the longer the reaction time and the stronger the solution of CaCl2 the firmer the final gel will be. We recommend you rinse l your structured preparations thoroughly to remove any excess. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Internal setting method: alginate is mixed into a puree or with other ingredients and blended thoroughly with another solution that contains ionic calcium. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Sodium alginate is a permitted food additive and is assigned EU no. E401. For all commercial use, please follow our disclaimer and advice and refer to regulatory texts for limitations to use. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Store in a dry, cool place, away from direct sunlight in its original packaging. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Best before: refer to date indicated on packaging. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">After opening: keeps 6 months. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Sodium alginate, gelling agent - E401 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">.CHOW : Top Stories : Gear Email .Burst in Your Mouth <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">16 CommentsPublished on Thursday, January 4, 2007, by Louisa Chu / Edit Post <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">The bubble burst in 2003. In July of that year, during the filming of Decoding Ferran Adrià, El Bulli’s notorious chef served host Anthony Bourdain green pea “ravioli.” They were bubbles made from pea purée that burst in Bourdain’s mouth. Meanwhile, Adrià’s brother and pastry chef, Albert Adrià, made them in front of a stunned food-industry crowd but did not give away the secret of how these otherworldly ravioli were made. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Now we know that the ingredients used to make them were sodium alginate and calcium chloride. Sodium alginate, a powerful algae-based thickener, is often used in pie filling. And calcium chloride, a kind of salt, is commonly used in cheese making. Together they react to form a firm yet delicate gelatin. The red stuffing in some olives is probably not julienned pimiento but strips of pepper purée solidified with sodium alginate and calcium chloride. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Ferran Adrià was the first to use these two industrial ingredients in an upscale restaurant to make what’s now the latest rage in modern dining: spheres, or bubbles—also known as “ravioli.” He and his creative team at El Bulli Taller, the restaurant’s off-season workshop run by his brother, discovered that if they removed drops of food mixed with sodium alginate from a calcium chloride bath at just the right moment, they would get liquid-filled spheres. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Previously, you could always buy sodium alginate, calcium chloride, and other industrial additives from Asian vendors such as Qingdao Zhouji Chemical Industry Co., but only in 50-pound sacks. Now that these ingredients are at the core of the molecular gastronomy trend, new dealers have popped up selling more manageable quantities. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Scoring the Chemicals <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">El Bulli introduced its line, Texturas, in the United States last June. They now offer 16 ingredients and one set of special tools. Each ingredient and tool canister is packaged with a basic recipe booklet, and more recipes can be found on the company’s website. Texturas is also available from Koerner and La Tienda. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Willpowder, marketed by El Bulli protégé Chef Will Goldfarb of New York City’s Room 4 Dessert, offers smaller quantities of some of the same compounds. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">We tested both lines to make spheres. From Texturas, we used Algin and Calcic—the company’s brand names for sodium alginate and calcium chloride—as well as their special spherification tools called Eines (Catalan for “tools.”) We tested the same additives from Willpowder. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Texturas <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Albert and Ferran Adrià, $23.75 to $119 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Willpowder <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Will Goldfarb, $4 to $15 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Texturas’s prices are high, but these powders will last a long time. Canisters contain 300 to 600 grams of powder, and you’ll use only a gram or two at a time. Willpowder is priced higher per ounce but sells in smaller quantities, so overall prices are lower. It also comes in handy resealable packs. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Along with the chemical additives, I used Texturas’s set of measuring spoons, two large plastic syringes, and two “Collecting Spoons”—perforated metal spoons for retrieving spheres. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">When testing both brands, I followed the recipe for Spherical Tea Ravioli on the Texturas website, which called for 1.5 grams of Algin (sodium alginate) and 400 grams of tea. First I poured 75 grams of water into a bowl, then added the Algin. Sodium alginate has a faint scent of rubber—like the first huff of a new Barbie doll—but ideally it should be rendered almost completely undetectable by the taste of your food. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">I mixed the ingredients well with a hand blender, trying to minimize bubbles by keeping the blades immersed, as bubbles will cloud the spheres. (It’s just an aesthetic preference; they don’t ruin the spheres.) The sodium alginate immediately thickened the water to goo. Some of the mixture stuck to the head of my blender, and I carefully scraped it back in with my finger, then re-blended. It turned somewhat cloudy. Next I added Earl Grey tea and blended again to mix. I set it aside for about an hour to let the bubbles dissipate and the alginate fully hydrate to its full effectiveness. After resting, the mixture became clear with a thin layer of bubbles on top. It had the viscous consistency of unset Jell-O. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">In the meantime, I made the calcium chloride bath by stirring 3.2 grams of Calcic (calcium chloride) into 500 grams of water. It dissolved quickly and easily. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Next, the Syringe <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Once the tea mixture had rested, I tried making little spheres the size of caviar. Using one of the plastic syringes, I sucked up some of the tea mixture and dropped it into the Calcic bath. The first attempts to make little spheres may come out long and wormy until you get the feel of it. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">To make spheres the size of egg yolks, I filled the measuring teaspoon with the tea mixture and tipped it into the Calcic bath with a single, smooth turn of the wrist. I let the sphere set for about 30 seconds, and then carefully lifted it out with a Collecting Spoon. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">I transferred the caviar and larger spheres to a plain water bath to rinse off the excess Calcic. After lifting them out with the second Collecting Spoon, I served them immediately at room temperature. They popped in the mouth refreshingly, bursting with tea, leaving a light membrane that melted quickly, all tasting just like a subtler version of the original tea with no discernable chemical taste. The results with the Willpowder products were the same as with the Texturas products, feeling and tasting nearly identical. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">You can vary the thickness of the membrane by leaving the spheres in the Calcic bath for longer periods of time. Just remember that after they are taken out, they will continue to set through, becoming more jelly-like, even after they are rinsed in water. For maximum bursting effect they should be served immediately, but they can be chilled or warmed for a few minutes in liquid, first. Also, it’s harder to make spheres with foods that have high acidity and/or calcium levels. So stay away from ingredients like lemonade and milk in the beginning. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Just Wing It  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Though you typically wouldn’t rely on a manufacturer to provide recipes, in this case detailed instructions are needed. There are no written recipes for how to cook with these chemical additives, aside from the latest El Bulli books, which are not yet available in the United States and are not in English. Both Texturas and Willpowder do provide some recipes with basic proportions of ingredients on their websites, but neither offers instructions on how to form spheres. I had my own experience cooking at El Bulli to draw from, but for others the lack of detailed info could be a problem. There is a somewhat helpful thread on eGullet discussing spherification. If you can make it to Barcelona, Solé Graells, an ingredients and materials distributor, offers the only course currently on Texturas. It’s free but taught in Catalan; English translation is available upon request. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">I’ll bet you’ll soon see easy kits containing smaller quantities of these additives, precise recipes, and great Web support. But how much cooler would it be to say you were making spheres back when the only real instructions available were in Catalan? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">In addition, in other food production, adding sodium alginate, such as: beverages, biscuits, candy, sandwich filling, grass jelly, etc. can play a relevant role. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">To use its gel characteristics, can be made <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">1, edible film materials: can be used for fish, meat wrap. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">2, calcium alginate casings: You can replace animal membrane used for sausages, sausage type of food casings <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">3, seaweed gel starch films: in the production of thin-film process, adding proper amount of sodium alginate, using its own high-viscosity and starch adsorption interaction between molecules, so that after mixing the liquid viscosity increases, thereby producing a new film - glue rice paper. Compared with the general film, its high tensile strength, crushing rate is low, gloss is good, and the convenience of sodium alginate and starch mixture. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">[|Home] <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;"> » <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">[|Spherification] <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;"> » **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Basic Spherification **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Sodium Alginate **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">’s form is a flavorless gum that is used as an emulsifier or to increase viscosity in the food industry. It can also be use in preparing dental impressions or in indigestion tablets. Some of its major applications is in //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">textile screen-printing, carpet jet-printing, reactive dye-printing // and as //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">thickener for reactive dyes //. When it comes to food additives, sodium alginate is best used in producing gel-like foods.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Properties **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Applications **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">jellies / fruit preparations
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">jellies, weak gels, fruit preparations
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">restructured fruit and vegetables
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">gelled wine preserves
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">gelled tea and herbal beverages
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Mousse
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Cream and fillings
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Aspic and coating
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">How to use **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Food regulations **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Storage **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Ingredients: **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Jelly: **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Jelly is a seaweed alginate solution added to a variety of fruit juices, sugar, etc. combine with calcium ions to form a jelly. It is a good heat resistance, and it could be heat sterilization, can be consumed throughout the year, add any variety of fruit juices, that is what the fruit color and taste.

<span style="color: #2c2c29; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none;">[|Basic Spherification]
The Basic Spherification technique consists of submerging a liquid with sodium alginate in a bath of calcium.

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Pros of Basic Spherification
- This technique is ideal for obtaining spheres with a very, very thin membrane that is almost imperceptible in your mouth and easily "explodes" as if there is no solid substance between your palate and the liquid.- There is no need to let the calcium bath rest for 12-24 hours before using it to obtain optimal results. This allows you to start and finish the preparation within an hour. In Reverse Spherification the sodium alginate bath needs to rest in the fridge for several hours to eliminate the air bubbles created by the process of dissolving the sodium alginate with the immersion blender.- It is easier to get a perfect sphere on the plate with Basic Spherification than with Reverse Spherification. Even if the resulting product is not a perfect sphere it will most likely look as one once you plate it as the subtle and flexible membrane will adapt and reshape when the quasi-sphere is placed on the plate. (for optimal results read "10 Tips to Create a Perfect Sphere")-This is the preferred spherification method for producing “caviar” (small spheres) since the viscosity of the bath is thin allowing the small droplets to cohere into a spherical shape in the bath and the spheres don’t stick together as in reverse spherification. (for optimal results read "7 Tips for Making Spherification Caviar")

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Cons of Basic Spherification
- Needs to be served immediately and cannot be stored. Once the sphere is removed from the sodium alginate bath, the process of jellification continues even after rinsing the sphere with water and it will convert into a compact gel ball with no magical liquid inside.- Jellification does not occur if the liquid acidity is high (PH<5) but this can be corrected by adding sodium citrate to the liquid to reduce the acidity level before the spherification process. However, sodium citrate has a sour taste as well as a salty taste so adding too much of it will change the flavor of the liquid in the sphere.- The consistency of the liquid inside the sphere is made a little gummy by the addition of sodium alginate. The good thing is that sodium alginate has no discernable flavor so it just increases the viscosity.- The delicacy of the resulting subtle membrane with the Basic Spherification process reduces the versatility of the resulting product. Any slight pressure will break them so they need to be manipulated carefully and they cannot be used as fillings in mousses or sponge cakes for example.

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Liquids with Watery Density (e.g. melon cantaloupe juice)
Add the amount of sodium alginate indicated in the recipe to 1/3 of the main ingredient and blend with an immersion blender until the sodium alginate is dissolved. Keep in mind that the sodium alginate will become sticky when it comes in contact with the liquid and it may take several minutes until it is completely dissolved. Then add the remaining main ingredient liquid and let it rest in the fridge for 1 hour to eliminate the air bubbles created by the immersion blender. This last step is just for aesthetics.

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Thick Liquids (e.g. mango puree)
In this preparation, water is added to the main ingredient to obtain the right consistency for spherification. Add the amount of sodium alginate indicated in the recipe to the water used to correct the main ingredient density and blend with an immersion blender until the sodium alginate is dissolved like explained in the previous process. Then add the main ingredient and let it rest in the fridge for 1 hour to eliminate the air bubbles created by the immersion blender.

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Correcting Acidity for Spherification
The Basic Spherification process that does not work if the main ingredient is too acidic (PH<5). If necessary, the acidity can be reduced by adding sodium citrate to the main ingredient (if watery liquid) or the water used to reduce the main ingredient density (if thick liquid) always BEFORE you add the sodium alginate.

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Creating the Spheres in the Calcium bath
While you wait for the main ingredient to settle in the fridge, prepare the bath by dissolving the amount of calcium chloride indicated in the recipe in a bowl with the water. You can just stir it since the calcium chloride dissolves very easily in water. Then prepare another bowl with plain water that you are going to use later for rinsing the spheres to remove the excess of calcium.Now grab the syringe (if you are making caviar) or the measuring spoon of the desired size (if you are making ravioli, gnocchi, etc.) and carefully pour the preparation in the calcium bath. Wait for the time indicated in the recipe and carefully remove the sphere from the calcium bath using a slotted spoon and rinse it in the bowl with clean water.I recommend you always start with one sphere first to adjust the pouring process and the time in the calcium bath. If the sphere membrane is too subtle and the sphere easily breaks when handling it with the slotted spoon carefully or when plating it, extend the time in the calcium bath until you get the desired strength. Keep in mind that the thinner the membrane the better experience people are going to have when eating it.Remember that the spheres made with the Basic Spherification technique need to be served immediately or they will eventually convert into a compact gel ball since the spherification process continues even after removing it from the calcium bath.Recommended ReadingGettting Started with SpherificationSpherification recipes <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">( REALLY GOOD SITE FOR RECIPES ON MOLECULAR GASTRONOMY!!!)