Agar has emerged as a revolutionary option in the dairy sector, increasingly used in place of traditional carrageenans. Unlike the latter, which require the addition of external agents for gelation and can influence the flavor, color, and aroma of foods, agar generates a physical gel through hydrogen bond formation, without the need for additional additives. This characteristic allows agar to provide greater stability and extend the shelf life of dairy products, thanks to its low reactivity with milk proteins.

Agar varieties that dissolve at low temperatures are particularly beneficial, as they prevent the denaturation of proteins during the dissolution process, ensuring a uniform and consistent texture. For this reason, its use has increased in the production of dairy desserts and spreadable cheeses, where it has been shown to improve texture, reduce whey production, and enhance the cutting characteristics of cheeses.

Rapid Agar varieties offer innovative solutions for cheeses and fermented dairy products, optimizing both the texture and stability of the final products. Those that dissolve at a temperature of 80ºC not only save time and costs but also maintain the organoleptic properties in heat-sensitive products. On the other hand, agar with rapid dissolution and low gelling levels provides a creamy and smooth texture in the final product.

This transition toward the use of agar not only benefits product quality but also represents a positive evolution in formulation within the dairy industry.

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Agarmex will once again be present at the upcoming Food Tech Summit and Expo 2024, which will take place on October 2nd and 3rd at the Citibanamex center in Mexico City. This event, celebrating its 15th anniversary, has established itself as the leader in Latin America and is a key meeting point for all professionals in the food and beverage industry in the region.

We invite you to visit us at our booth 1340, where you can get more information about the production and marketing of our agar-agar. This ingredient is vital for its use in bacterial cultures, the food industry, and the microbiology sector. Additionally, we will be sharing the stabilizing and dietary benefits that our agar-agar can offer.

The event will bring together thousands of suppliers from the sector, including companies in starches, enzymes, fibers, chemicals, food processing equipment, and much more. The Food Tech Summit and Expo features a format that combines exhibitions, facilitating connections among professionals in the food and beverage technology industry.

During these two days, you will have the opportunity to discover firsthand the latest developments in the sector. The fair will cover various areas, including research and development, food and beverage quality, production processes, technical management, as well as packaging and marketing.

Don’t miss the chance to contact us for your silver pass and enjoy this event! We look forward to seeing you.

*The Mexican pet food market increased by 18.8% between 2017 and 2022. It is estimated that the size of the Mexican pet food market will reach $3.29 billion in 2024, and it is expected to reach $4.58 billion in 2029.

This growth is associated with the changing economic and social landscape of the country, which has led to an increase in pet ownership and a boost in the demand for pet food.

In addition to the growth in pet ownership, there are also more owners who are concerned about and pay attention to the properties of the food their animals consume. Numerous studies confirm that both the quality and the label confirming that it is produced with natural ingredients influence 53% of people when buying food for their pets.

All of this has led to an increase in the number of companies that have joined a pet food sector that focuses on intestinal health and the quality of the components of these foods.

One of the ingredients that is increasingly being incorporated into the production of these foods is agar. Among the reasons is the fact that this vegetable hydrocolloid provides the natural fiber that our furry companions need, but the main benefit is that it allows for the creation of a nutritionally balanced product tailored to their needs, maintaining a texture and consistency that is appealing to pets.

*source: https://www.mordorintelligence.com/es/industry-reports/mexico-pet-food-market

As we have previously discussed in an earlier article, agar-agar is a natural product derived from red seaweeds. In the food industry, it is used as a thickening, emulsifying, and gelling agent, and consumers can purchase it in the form of powder, flakes, or transparent sheets.

This versatile ingredient has various applications in cooking and allows for the modification of the texture of our recipes without affecting their aroma, flavor, or color.

One of the most notable characteristics of agar is its significant hysteresis, the highest among hydrocolloids. As mentioned before, hysteresis refers to the difference between the gelation temperature and the melting temperature of a gel.

To dissolve agar, it is necessary to reach the boiling point, and once dissolved, the gel will form as the temperature drops below 40 degrees. Agar gels are thermoreversible, meaning that, due to agar’s high hysteresis, they can be heated while maintaining their solid state, only melting again when reaching 85-90°C, not before.

Therefore, unlike gelatin gels, agar gels can be served hot. This unique property led agar to be used in high-level gastronomy by Ferrán Adrià.

More and more people are becoming aware of their diet and its impact on their health. Therefore, it is important for consumers to be able to read a product label and understand what ingredients it is made of. This change in consumption habits has led to the emergence and growth of a trend known as “clean labeling.”

This clean label entails that, when producing our foods, we choose to use natural, healthy, easily identifiable ingredients and avoid additives and complicated labeling.

This poses a significant challenge for the food industry, which must reformulate to adapt to a label that is as simple and natural as possible, without compromising sensory quality, safety, and product quality, as much as possible, regardless of cost.

In this vein, Agarmex supplies food-grade agar to the industry. It is a seaweed extract that can modify the texture of the final product according to the manufacturer’s needs without altering its color, smell, and taste.

This natural vegetable-based gelling agent allows for replacing other additives with texturizing or emulsifying functions in formulations while promoting the aforementioned clean label.

If a product contains E406, consumers are less likely to associate it with agar-agar, leading to distrust. However, if it is labeled as agar-agar, the reaction will be the opposite – positive, as it is a well-known ingredient with a good reputation.

If you are looking to develop new recipes or reformulate existing ones and want to experiment with agar-agar, do not hesitate to contact the sales department for advice.

Traditionally, nuts, soybeans and vegetable oils have been used to produce vegan cheese. But, as is almost always the case with this type of food, the problem lies in achieving the final consistency of the non-vegan product. To address this problem, agar is the ideal strategic ingredient, as it replaces rennet and produces a range of textures, from soft to hard.  

In addition, the use of agar will add nutritional benefits to the recipe and it combines perfectly with nuts. Agar is not only used in the preparation of homemade cheese, it is increasingly common to find industrially produced vegan cheeses on the market that contain agar as a main ingredient. 

There are many recipes for making vegan cheese and many varieties can be replicated. You can find a range of vegan versions of cheese, from “hard” cheddar to semi-soft cheeses such as mozzarella, feta and Brie. Of course, we shouldn’t forget about the range of cheese spread recipes. QSol Soft Agar is perfect for making this last variety of cheese. 

But it’s not just vegan cheese recipes that have consistency problems. In traditional vegan yogurt recipes, the final product is often more liquid than desired and, thanks to its gelling effect, agar is ideal to prevent this problem. 

Hysteresis temperature in gels refers to a phenomenon in which the physical properties of a gel, such as its viscosity, elasticity or stiffness, can vary depending on whether the temperature increases or decreases. 

This phenomenon may occur because gels are complex systems that can interact with temperature in different ways. For example, the gel molecular structure can change when the gel heats up, which can affect its physical properties, such as its viscosity or elasticity. Similarly, when the gel cools down, it may undergo changes in its structure and physical properties. 

Hysteresis temperature is a common phenomenon in many types of gels. Agar has the highest hysteresis of all hydrocolloids. Once dissolved in water at a 1-1.5% concentration, the solution forms a gel when cooled to 34-38°C, and this gel only melts when heated to 85-90°C. 

This allows the solution to solidify easily at room temperature without refrigeration, therefore this gel can be heated again, making it stable at quite high temperatures. Curiously, this enables to have agar solutions in the range of 35-85ºC, either in liquid or gel state. 

A clear example in which we observe this useful property of agar is when cooking, since it allows us to maintain, for example, frostings or toppings with a solidified and stable appearance even in warm spaces.

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Agar is the healthiest hydrocolloid on the market

Let’s begin with a short explanation of what hydrocolloids are. Hydrocolloids are a large family of polysaccharides and proteins that dissolve in water as colloids and are highly prone to forming gels. Thanks to these properties, they have a wide variety of applications. They help to texturize, thicken, bind, emulsify, stabilize, form foam, films, gel, thin and increase adherence. Due to all these applications, they can be found in countless ways in our daily life.

There is a wide range of hydrocolloids: Guar rubber, Konjac, gelatin, starch, agar, alginates, carrageenans… They are of animal origin, such as gelatin, from fruit, such as pectin, from algae, such as agar or manufactured from plants, such as xanthan gum. 

Of all the range of hydrocolloids on the market, agar is the healthiest. Traditionally, in traditional Asian medicine, it has been recognized as having various properties. Agar is moisturizing, easily digestible, satiating, regulates the intestinal transit, provides minerals, contains less than 0.2% fat, decreases cholesterol absorption and sugar and flushes out toxic residues. Finally, it is the main vegan and natural alternative to animal-based gelatin. At Agarmex we have a wide range of bacteriological agars adapted to any of your needs.

Category: Food Agar