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In Europe the interest for this new market is growing. The SME Feyecon (the Netherlands) and Evonik (Germany) are working with new extraction techniques that could be used to produce the high value ingredients form micro and macroalgae. Products and services offered currently and their future prospects There are experienced industries in Europe that develop alginate, carrageenan and agar from seaweed. Value added production processes have a place in Europe. However, with almost no production of seaweed Europe is heavily dependent on import of raw materials from Asia. Alginates, carrageenan and agar are commonly used to enhance viscosity in food products. The food applications of alginates are presented in Table 0.16 . Table 0.16 Food applications of alginates Use Dairy products Ice cream Function Approx. use level ( % ) As a stabilizer in ice cream. Algin maintains a smooth texture and creamy consistency and prevents formation of large ice crystals. Ice milk Milk-shake mixes A frozen dessert, as a stabilizer, Algin gives good dryness and stiffness and slow meltdown to soft-serve ice milk. Hard-frozen ice milk, as a stabilizer, Algin provides good secondary overrun and creamy, thick milk shakes. Sherbets and water ices Sherbets are frozen desserts, stabilized with PGA, and have clean flavour, smooth texture, and good body without crumbliness or sugar syrup separation. Chocolate milk Yogurt, sour cream and imitation dairy products Bakery products Icings Cake fillings and toppings Algin-carrageenan compositions are used as a suspending agent to suspend cocoa fibre and to give a smooth, uniform-viscosity chocolate milk product. Algin used as a bodying agent for viscosity control 0.1–0.5 0.2–0.5 0.25–0.5 0.3–0.5 ≤ 0.25 Bakery icings, it gives a soft gel consistency and light body and smooth texture, as a bodying agent. Algin gives the products with a tender body and smooth texture, as a stabilizer. Upon aging, the fillings and toppings retain their texture and do not become tough or rubbery. Bakery Meringues jellies: A freeze-thaw stable, bakery jelly. Liquid egg white meringues and dry meringue powders, containing PGA, gives good texture, and bleeding is reduced. Glazes Pie fillings Algin-sugar combinations resist sweeting and do not become brittle. Algin prevents separation and cracking, the filling has a soft, smooth gel body. For neutral or acid-type chiffon pie fillings, and for lipid-based, aerated, gelling filling. Other products Dietetic foods Algin has a caloric value of about 1.4 cal/g. As most applications require less than 1% of algin, so the number of calories contributed by algin to dietetic foods is very 0.1–0.5 0.3–0.5 0.25–0.75 0.2 0.3–0.5 0.3–0.5 0.7–1.5 1.25–6.0 - Study in support of Impact Assessment work on Blue Biotechnology 137

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