WHAT ARE HYDROCOLLOIDS?
Colloids
A colloid is a substance in which one substance of microscopically dispersed insoluble particles is suspended throughout another substance. The particles in a colloid can be solid, liquid or bubbles of gas. The medium that they are suspended in can be a solid, liquid or gas (although gas colloids cannot be suspended in gas).The particles are approximately 10 to 10,000 angstroms in size and generally cannot be filtered, or settled out in an easy manner. Colloid particles may be seen in a beam of light such as dust in air in a "shaft" of sunlight. A colloid can be thought of as being intermediate between a solution and a suspension. While a suspension will separate out a colloid will not. Colloids can be distinguished from solutions using the Tyndall effect. Light passing through a colloidal dispersion, such as smoky or foggy air, will be reflected by the larger particles and the light beam will be visible.
Hydrocolloids
A hydrocolloid is defined as a colloid system wherein the colloid particles are hydrophilic polymers dispersed in water. A hydrocolloid has colloid particles spread throughout water, and depending on the quantity of water available that can take place in different states, e.g., gel or sol (liquid). Hydrocolloids can be either irreversible (single-state) or reversible. For example, agar, a reversible hydrocolloid of seaweed extract, can exist in a gel and solid state, and alternate between states with the addition or elimination of heat.
Many hydrocolloids are derived from natural polysaccharide sources. For example, agar-agar and carrageenan are extracted from seaweed, gelatin is produced by hydrolysis of proteins of mammalian and fish origins, and pectin is extracted from citrus peel and apple pomace.
Gelatin desserts like jelly or Jell-O are made from gelatin powder, another effective hydrocolloid. Hydrocolloids are employed in food mainly to influence texture or viscosity (e.g., a sauce). Hydrocolloid-based medical dressings are used for skin and wound treatment.
Other main hydrocolloids are xanthan gum, gum arabic, guar gum, locust bean gum, cellulose derivatives as carboxymethyl cellulose, alginate and starch.
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