Wapedia - Wiki: Thickening agent

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Thickening agents, or thickeners, are substances which, when added to an aqueous mixture, increase its
viscosity without substantially modifying its other properties, such as taste. They provide body, increase
stability, and improve suspension of added ingredients. Thickening agents are often used as food additives
and in cosmetics and personal hygiene products. Some thickening agents are gelling agents, forming a gel.
The agents are materials used to thicken and stabilize liquid solutions, emulsions, and suspensions. They
dissolve in the liquid phase as a colloid mixture that forms a weakly cohesive internal structure.

Contents:
1. Food
2. Cosmetics
3. Paint and Printing thickeners
4. Petrochemistry
5. Explosives and incendiaries
6. See also
7. External links

1. Food
Food thickeners frequently are based on either polysaccharides (starches, vegetable gums, and pectin), or
proteins. A flavourless powdered starch used for this purpose is a fecula (from the Latin faecula , diminutive
of faex meaning "dregs"). This category includes arrowroot, cornstarch, katakuri starch, potato starch, sago,
and tapioca. Vegetable gums used as food thickeners include alginin, guar gum, locust bean gum, and
xanthan gum. Proteins used as food thickeners include collagen, egg whites, furcellaran, gelatin. Sugars
include agar and carrageenan. Other thickening agents act on the proteins already present in a food. One
example is sodium pyrophosphate, which acts on casein in milk during the preparation of instant pudding. It
exists authentic food thickener such as functional flours These functional flours are produced from specific
cereal variety (wheat, maize, rice or other) conjugated to specific heat treatment able to increase stability,
consistency and general functionalities. These functional flours are resistance to industrial stresses: acidic pH,
sterilisation, freeze conditions, and can help food industries to formulate with natural based ingredients. For
the final consumer, these ingredients are more accepted because they are declared as "flour" in the
ingredient list

Different thickeners may be more or less suitable in a given application, due to differences in taste, clarity,
and their responses to chemical and physical conditions. For example, for acidic foods, arrowroot is a better
choice than cornstarch, which loses thickening potency in acidic mixtures. At (acidic) pH levels below 4.5,
guar gum has sharply reduced aqueous solubility, thus also reducing its thickening capability. If the food is to
be frozen, tapioca or arrowroot are preferable over cornstarch, which becomes spongy when frozen.

Many other food ingredients are used as thickeners, usually in the final stages of preparation of specific
foods. These thickeners have a flavor and are not markedly stable, thus are not suitable for general use.
However, they are very convenient and effective, and hence are widely used.

Flour is often used for thickening gravies, gumbos, and stews. It must be cooked in thoroughly to avoid the
taste of uncooked flour. Roux, a mixture of flour and fat (usually butter) cooked into a paste, is used for
gravies, sauces and stews. Cereal grains (oatmeal, couscous, farina, etc.) are used to thicken soups. Yogurt
is popular in Eastern Europe and Middle East for thickening soups. Soups can also be thickened by adding
grated starchy vegetables before cooking, though these will add their own flavour. Tomato puree also adds
thickness as well as flavour. Egg yolks have rich flavor and offer a velvety smooth texture but can prove to
be difficult to use. Other thickeners used by cooks are nuts (including rehan) or glaces made of meat or fish.

Many thickening agents require extra care in cooking. Some starches lose their thickening quality when
cooked for too long or at too high a temperature, and thickened food may burn more easily during cooking.
As an alternative to adding more thickener, recipes may call for reduction of the food's water content by
lengthy simmering. When cooking, it is generally better to add thickener cautiously; if over-thickened, more
water may be added but loss of flavour and texture may result.

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Wapedia - Wiki: Thickening agent

Gelling agents are food additives used to thicken and stabilize various foods, like jellies, desserts and
candies. The agents provide the foods with texture through formation of a gel. Some stabilizers and
thickening agents are gelling agents.

Typical gelling agents include natural gums, starches, pectins, agar-agar and gelatin. Often they are based
on polysaccharides or proteins.

Examples are:

Alginic acid (E400), sodium alginate (E401), potassium alginate (E402), ammonium alginate (E403),
calcium alginate (E404) - polysaccharides from brown algae
Agar (E406, a polysaccharide obtained from red seaweeds)
Carrageenan (E407, a polysaccharide obtained from red seaweeds)
Locust bean gum (E410, a natural gum from the seeds of the Carob tree)
Pectin (E440, a polysaccharide obtained from apple or citrus-fruit)
Gelatin (E441, made by partial hydrolysis of animal collagen)

Extracts of plants such as konjac and Ficus pumila are also commonly made into jellies and used in many
East Asian cuisines.

Food thickening can be important for people facing medical issues with chewing or swallowing, as foods with
a thicker consistency can reduce the chances of choking, or of inhalation of liquids or food particles, which
can lead to aspiration pneumonia.

2. Cosmetics
Thickening agents used in cosmetics or personal hygiene products include polyethylene glycol, synthetic
polymers such as carbomer (a trade name for polyacrylic acid) and vegetable gums. Some thickening agents
may also function as stabilizers when they are used to maintain the stability of an emulsion. Some
emollients, such as petroleum jelly and various waxes may also function as thickening agents in an emulsion

3. Paint and Printing thickeners

One of the main use of thickeners in the paint and printing industries, for example ( acrylic thickener ) is the
main item used in both textile printing with water base and also in the water base paints. Also polyvenyle co-
polimer and homopolimer is one thickener that can be used in the paint industries

4. Petrochemistry
In petrochemistry, gelling agents, also called solidifiers, are chemicals capable of reacting with oil spills and
forming rubber-like solids. The gelled coagulated oil then can be removed from the water surface by
skimming, suction devices, or nets. Calm or only moderately rough sea is required.

5. Explosives and incendiaries

Various materials are used to convert liquid explosives to a gel form. Nitrocellulose and other nitro esters are
often used. Other possibilities include nitrated guar gum[1].

Many fuels used in incendiary devices require thickening for increased performance. Aluminium salts of fatty
acids are frequently used. Some formulations (e.g. Napalm-B) use polymeric thickeners, namely polystyrene.
Hydroxyl aluminium bis(2-ethylhexanoate) is also used. Thickened pyrophoric agent, a pyrophoric
replacement of napalm, is a triethylaluminium thickened with polyisobutylene.

6. See also

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Wapedia - Wiki: Thickening agent

Mucilage

7. External links
Cook's Thesaurus: Thickeners

Categories: Articles to be expanded from March 2008, All articles to be expanded, Edible thickening agents,
Thickening agents, Food additives, Gels
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modified: 2010-10-17 13:26:37

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