The application of natural hydrocolloids to foods and beverages - Natural Food Additives, Ingredients and Flavourings - page 174

Table 8.1 Main types of hydrocolloids used in the food industry, and their origin, E
numbers, and whether perceived as natural

Origin Hydrocolloid E Number Natural

Plants Starch Many types Some

Cellulose gums E460-466 No

Seeds Guar gum E412 Yes

Locust bean gum E410 Yes

Fruit Pectin E440 Most

Tubers Konjac E425 Yes

Tree exudates Gum arabic E414 Yes

Gum karaya E416 Yes

Gum tragacanth E413 Yes

Seaweed Alginate E400-404 Borderline

Agar E406 Yes

Carrageenan E407 Borderline

Microbial
fermentation

Xanthan gum E415 No

Gellan gum E418 No

Animal Gelatin None Borderline

from plants and might therefore be considered natural. However, this will depend
on the degree and type of processing that they undergo post harvest. Although
there is no EU legal defi nition for natural at the current time, the Food Standards
Agency (FSA) in the UK has issued guidance where natural ingredients are
defi ned as 'ingredients produced by nature, not the work of man or interfered with
by man', and that it is misleading to use the term natural if ingredients employ
chemicals to change their composition or are extracted by chemical processes
(FSA 2008). This is in contrast with the EU fl avourings regulation (Regulation
(EC) No. 1334/2008) where natural fl avours are clearly regulated and where
fl avouring preparations can be interfered with by man within the bounds of
traditional processes, including the use of solvent extraction (see more detailed
discussion in earlier chapters).
Because of the lack of regulation and defi nition of natural hydrocolloids,
consumer perception is often an important factor in categorising these gums.
While consumers do not want additives with chemical sounding names,
hydrocolloids that have been used by consumers for many years and are traditional
in their country; they will usually be considered natural by consumers even if they
have undergone some chemical processing post harvesting. This means that
natural is one of the biggest grey areas affecting the choice of hydrocolloids at the
current time and makes it diffi cult to produce a defi nitive guide to natural
hydrocolloids.
In this chapter, all the different types of hydrocolloids are discussed in order to
understand potential challenges in replacing those not considered natural. In the
main section on natural hydrocolloids, both those hydrocolloids considered
natural because of no chemical processing and the borderline hydrocolloids (those

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