When you think of guar gum, you immediately think of a thickener. In fact, in addition to the identity of the thickener, it is also a very good water-soluble dietary fiber, a high-quality prebiotics. Therefore, in the food field, people’s understanding of guar gum is from the manufacture of food “utility components” gradually to the food nutritional points of the “efficacy of the component” change.

Thickener

Guar Gum (CNS No.: 20.025; INS No.: 412): Guar endosperm flakes as raw materials, hydration, crushing and other steps of the processing of the production of almost tasteless or have a faint smell of beans, white to light yellow powder.

Guar gum in food processing is mainly used as a thickener, water-holding agent, usually alone or with other edible gum compound use. Guar gum in cold water after rapid hydration to form a highly viscous and thixotropic solution, it’s 1% dispersion system viscosity of about 6000cPs, is known to be the best viscosity effect of colloids in the glue, while the water absorption is also the best, this can be combined with a large number of water, so that its ability to be used in the food industry has been widely used.

Guar gum has the following main functions in food:
Stabilizing effect: It can stabilize multi-phase systems (oil, water, solids), and also stabilize viscosity, as well as stabilize colloids and reduce surface tension, thus stabilizing emulsions and suspensions, and stabilizing foaming liquids.

Thickening effect: to increase the consistency of food, and can make some fruit juice and beer to enhance the gas holding.

Softening effect: Used as an improver of edible gum together with xanthan gum and carob bean gum.

Water-holding effect: prevent bread, cakes and other baked products from aging and losing water, prolong the insurance period, can also be used in frozen food, pudding and yogurt.

Thin film excipient: such as used in fast soup, instant beverage, microencapsulated spices, and so on.

Viscosity enhancement: increase the viscoelasticity of food, improve the mechanical endurance of the dough and gas retention capacity, commonly used in bread, noodles and other baked goods.

Preventing large crystals: such as preventing the production of coarse sugar crystals in ice cream.

Prebiotics

The main component of guar gum, galactomannan, is a pure natural plant polysaccharide, which belongs to water-soluble dietary fiber, one of the high-quality prebiotics.

Plant polysaccharides, also known as polysaccharides, are active macromolecules present in plants and are abundant biopolymers in nature. Polysaccharide is not only a nutrient for living organisms, but also participates in a variety of life activities with physiological functions such as energy storage, structural support, defense function and antigenic characterization, which is the material basis of life. It exists widely in nature, and is one of the active ingredients of many kinds of Chinese herbal medicine. It is an ideal immune enhancer, which can significantly improve the function of the body’s immune system without toxic side effects on normal cells, and it is effective in anti-tumor, anti-virus, anti-aging and so on.

It has been found that guar gum has various functions of water-soluble dietary fiber in human body, which can reduce cholesterol in liver and blood, inhibit the rise of blood glucose value in sugar load test, and also has the function of regulating insulin and making insulin in blood decrease.

Application of guar gum in food

The ability of guar gum to bind with large amounts of water makes it widely used in the food industry. In the food industry, guar gum mainly plays the role of thickening and water holding, and its specific applications in several common foods are as follows:

Frozen products

Guar gum plays the role of stabilizing the system by improving and controlling the nature of water in food. Applied to a variety of frozen dairy and non-dairy products, it prevents the formation of ice crystals during freezing and thawing, giving the product a smooth, creamy texture and improving chewiness. In addition, guar gum also prevents products from melting too quickly, thereby extending their shelf life.

The use of guar gum in ice cream (0.2%-0.5%) can play a role in preventing the formation of granular ice crystals, and at the same time to control the generation of large ice crystals and lactose crystals, to improve product stability, in particular, resistance to melting and resistance to sudden heat, in order to improve the convenience of the taste is significantly better than the other colloids, and to give the ice cream lubrication and glutinous texture.

Compound emulsion stabilizer used in ice cream has different formulations, Chen Weiyong and other blending dosage of guar gum 0.14%, xanthan gum 0.02%, carrageenan 0.03%, CMC-Na 0.06%; Zhou Li and other formulations of guar gum 0.15%, xanthan gum 0.1%, 0.012% carrageenan, gelatin 0.15%; Liu Liangzhong and others will be konjac fine powder and guar gum according to the 3: Liu Liangzhong et al. konjac flour and guar gum by 3:2 ratio of binary composite additives and add a certain proportion of monoglycerides to form a compound stabilizer, by adding compound stabilizer ice cream can be obtained better expansion rate, resistance to melting, to enhance the overall quality of the product.

Bakery products
In all kinds of bakery products, guar gum can give the dough excellent film characteristics, especially with low gluten flour products, bread products with good water retention, soft tissue and volume can be highly expanded. Adding guar gum to cake and cookie doughs results in softer, better shaped products that are less prone to breakage when sliced, shorter batter mixing times and improved internal structure.

Fruit Juice
Guar Gum, when used in juice products, ensures uniform distribution of the pulp during canning and storage and improves the taste. In addition, guar gum coordinates the suspension of particles in fruit pulp beverages and combines effectively with emulsifiers.

Zhao Rongzhong et al. xanthan gum and different colloids for the role of compounding in peanut milk found that xanthan gum and guar gum (1:2 compound) added to peanut milk at 0.5 ‰ to maintain the best stability; in the lactobacillus beverage were added to carrageenan 0.545 ‰, CMC 0.503 ‰, guar gum 0.562 ‰ to achieve the best stabilization of active lactobacillus beverage.

In addition, in the yam mixed juice, apricot mushroom and peanut composite protein drinks and apricot pulp solid drinks, etc., the stability of a single addition of guar gum is not ideal, and with xanthan gum, pectin, etc. for a certain proportion of the complex can achieve the best stabilization effect of the product.

Canned food
In canned food production, guar gum is widely used as viscosity regulator, processing aids and protective hydrosols. It reduces product loss due to splashing during processing, allows for easy pumping of material to the canning equipment, ensures accurate control of the canning process, and assists in the formation of a homogeneous dispersion. The end product has no fat migration, is well suspended and stable in storage.

Sauces
In the production of flowing salad dressings, guar gum is often used in combination with yellow ingredients, for example, to take advantage of the basic property of guar gum to produce a high viscosity at low concentrations, which results in better organoleptic qualities such as texture and rheology of these products. Guar gum helps to improve mouthfeel, regulates flow, solid suspension and adhesion. Due to its excellent cold and hot hydrolysis properties, it can be effectively used in instant products such as soups, seasonings, instant beverages and sweets.

Dairy products.
In soft cheese processing, guar gum controls the consistency and spreading properties of the product. Due to the property of guar gum to bind water, the product can be evenly coated.

In yogurt according to pectin 0.25 ‰, carrageenan 0.15 ‰, guar gum 0.55 ‰ amount to add, can be fermented yogurt viscosity and sensory quality to improve the role.

Meat products.
Guar gum is beneficial to improve the sensory quality of meat products, reduce the hardness of the product and enhance the gel properties. Li Haimei et al. studied the effect of guar gum on the gel formation of minced silver carp found that in the production of minced silver carp add 0.1% guar gum can increase the hardness and gel strength of minced fish gel, reduce viscosity and brittleness, improve the product color; Zhao Mouming et al. will be konjac gum and guar gum joint ratio to add to the production of pork preserved meat, when adding 0.24% konjac gum with 0.16% guar gum, the edible quality and storage performance of the pork laying best. quality and storage performance is the best, while the product sensory score is the highest, the moisture activity is the lowest, the hardness, adhesion, chewiness and so on can achieve the best effect.

Soybean products
Soybean products need to add coagulants and stabilizers during the production process, and guar gum can affect the gelation process of protein. Li Meng et al. will be magnesium chloride and guar gum in a certain proportion of compound (about 4.9:1) in the role of tofu production found that the addition of guar gum increased the rate of the first stage of the coagulation process, changed the textural properties of tofu, hardness decreased significantly.

Bow Yuhong et al. through the anti-aging study of red kidney bean bean paste to determine the optimal additive ratio to delay the aging of bean paste filling for xanthan gum 2 ‰, guar gum 3 ‰ composite additive. The addition of guar gum can improve the processing characteristics of soybean products, as a quality improver.

Health food
Guar gum in the human body with a variety of functions of water-soluble dietary fiber, can reduce liver and blood cholesterol, sugar load test can inhibit the rise in blood glucose values, but also has the role of regulating insulin and insulin in the blood down. It should be noted that the addition of guar gum affects the absorption of calcium, zinc and iron to varying degrees.

Others
Guar gum is very promising and is currently used both as a natural water-soluble fiber in food products and in low-fat or fat-free food products to effectively improve their texture and organization.
References:
1.Bao Min, Characterization of guar gum and its application in food industry
2. Yinghui Gu, Qing Yang, Progress of research on the application of food grade guar gum
3. Gu Zhendong, Liu Xiaoyan, Research Progress on Production of Guar Gum and its Application