Agar Agar was the first hydrocolloid to be used in the human food industry. In the beginning, it was only used in the Far East, but the applications have been extending all over the world for more than a century.
In the human food industry, agar is used mainly as a gelling agent and in a secondary way as a stabilizing agent and for controlling viscosity. It is used as an additive, not as a nutrient. The gelling power of agar is so high that it is used at a 1% maximum concentration; for viscosity control and as a stabilizing agent, the proportion used is 1/100 or less. For this reason, the ingested quantities are very small, and because agar is not easily digested by the human body, its calorie contribution is negligible, and thus agar can be used in special diet food.
Agar applications in the food industry are based on its special characteristics, and the most important applications are as follows:
Confectionery:
In confectionery, prepare jellies, marshmallows, and candies or candy fillers.
Marmalade:
In marmalade production, agar is used as a thickening and gelling agent.
Fruit Salad:
Mitsumame production in Japan is very important; this is a fruit salad mixed with agar gel cubes, duly coloured, salted and flavoured with fruit flavour. The agar used for this kind of fruit salad must allow the cans to be sterilized without the cubes melting or losing their corners or edges. For this purpose certain types of Gelidium agar are used.
Bakery:
In bakeries, agar is used to cover cakes and icing doughnuts, and when it is applied to chocolate, it allows a good adherence to the base without cracking. In general, agar is utilized to prevent dehydration of these confectionery products.
Jelly:
Agar is also important in fruit jelly preparations. When compared with pectin, agar has the advantage of not needing high sugar concentrations to form a gel.
Yogurt:
Its application in yoghurt is also very important especially when consumers started to require less acid products and, therefore, casein cannot contribute to the maintenance of the product consistency, as it previously did.
Meat:
In the meat industry, and especially in the preparation of soft-boiled sausages, its use has permitted the reduction of fat content that acted before as bonding. Today the industry is trying to limit fat content in order to reduce cholesterol.
Canned Food:
Agar is also used on a large scale in canned products like "Scatola" meat (beef blocks in gelatin) - very popular in Italy, or chicken in gelatin - very common in Canada; cow tongue in gelatin -selling well in Denmark; lamb tongue in Australia, or other different types of meat and fish aspics. In dressings and extracts, it is used as a thickener and stabilizer.
Drinks & Beverages:
In smaller quantities, agar is used to increase the viscosity of some alcoholic liquors.
Agar jelly, Water dessert jellies, Confectionery, Bakery products, Dairy products, Fermented products, Canned meat and fish products, Soups and sauces, Fining agents, and Health foods.
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