Guar gum powder is a valuable additive used in number of applications in the food industry. This white, free flowing finely grounded powder processed in the industries in a hygienic environment with the help of advanced machineries under quality control measures. It is obtained from the seeds of legume plant called guar widely grown in arid regions like India, Pakistan etc. The seeds are subjected to processes like roasting, grinding, polishing etc., to obtain fine quality powdered guar gum.
Guar gum is popular by several names across different parts of the world – for example it is known as Gomme de guar in French, while the Germans call it Guarkernmehl, it is Goma guar in Catalan language while spelled as Guar guma in Croatian. Whatever be the name by which guar gum is called it’s valuable properties and applications remain the same in all parts of the world whether commercially or in food industry.
Reasons for Why Guar Gum Powder is Used
The powdered guar gum has number of valuable properties which make it a useful additive in food preparations. The powder is added for following benefits.
- Viscosity Control
- Water Binding and Thickening
- Stabilizing and Suspension
- Improving Shelf Life
- Improving the quality of food – Guar gum powder when added in preparations like frozen desserts, puddings etc will improve their physical characteristics and add substance to it with improved flavor.
- Improving the texture, mouth feel and softness of the products especially the frozen foods like ice creams.
How is Guar Gum Powder used in Food Industry?
Guar gum is widely used in the form of thickening, binding and suspending agent in food industry.
Guar Gum Powder for Food Industry
Baking
The finely powdered guar is valuable additive for preparation of baked products. Guarkernmehl for baking enhances the shelf life of the cakes, pie fillings and other baked preparations by absorbing the excess water in them. When added in bread, it enhances the softness and quality of the bread. By addition of guar powder the batter mixing time is greatly reduced and therefore the baked products can be effortlessly and quicker be prepared.
Frozen Foods
The frozen foods like ice creams, desserts and soft-serve products give a different mouth feel when consumed. This is because of guar gum. Guar gum imparts texture and improves the mouth feel of the ice creams by making it softer while preventing the crystal formation.
Meat Industry
Guar’s invaluable viscosity control makes it valuable additive for canning and smoking process of meat preparation. It increases the viscosity thereby reducing the splashing while increasing the speed of the meat preparation process.
Pet Food
Guar gum is more economical when compared to other alternative gum products and therefore preferred in preparation of pet foods or canned food for dogs, cats etc.
Condiments and Packaged Mixes
Products like bottled sauces, canned gravies, packaged instant mix products are also prepared using guar powder as an additive. It increases the shelf life of the condiments like sauces, dressings while gives better thickening and moisture immobilization for better storage of packaged mixes.
So guar gum powder is undoubtedly, valuable and also an economical additive for different applications in food industry.
This article has been written by Biren Patel working at Agro Gums. Agro Gums is a guar and cassia gum manufacturing company offering high quality guar gum powder, fast hydration guar gum powder, cassia powder, guar splits and guar meal to satisfy the production requirements of various industries across the world.
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