Gellan is a gelling agent that is mostly used in the food industry to gel jam. It is vegan and considered harmless to health.
What is gellan?
Gellan is a plant-based polysaccharide primarily used in the food industry. There gellan is used as a food additive E418 as a gelling, thickening and stabilizing agent. Gellan has properties similar to pectin and is therefore often used as a gelling agent for jams and marmalades. It is also often used as a stabilizer for soy milk to keep it from creaming.
According to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), gellan is considered safe for humans because it cannot be used by our body as roughage. Since fiber stimulates digestion, high consumption of gellan can have a laxative effect.
Gellan is produced biotechnologically using Pseudomonas bacteria. These form gellan by themselves in the course of their metabolism. In order to isolate the gellan from the bacterial solution, it is heated and then the gellan is precipitated with isopropyl alcohol.
Where else is gellan used?
Gel formers are not only interesting for the food industry. Gellan also finds application in the pharmaceutical industry. For example, eye drops are often gelled with gellan so that they stay in the eye longer. It is also used in microbiological research as an alternative to the gelling agent agar agar to solidify culture media.
Unlike gelatine, gellan is a vegan gelling agent. Although it is harmless to health, it is worth taking a closer look at the list of ingredients: Gellan is often used in combination with other thickeners and other additives to achieve the desired gel texture.
