Derived from the collagen in animal skin and bones, gelatine remains one of the most widely used hydrocolloids in food applications. As such, it has a seemingly bright future, even after a hugely bad press following the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) crisis.
While BSE-related "concerns" are still used by suppliers of gelatine replacers (mainly other, less versatile hydrocolloids) as part of the justification for their efforts, opposition to gelatine has now largely subsided, thanks chiefly to the efforts of the industry itself.
Focusing on good manufacturing practice, emphasising high standards for quality and purity - and pledging full cooperation with food industry bodies - gelatine manufacturing associations around the world stress that there is no scientific evidence linking gelatine to BSE. This view is supported by the European Food Safety Authority, the US Food and Drug Administration and other food safety bodies in wider markets.
Marc Vermeulen, secretary general of Gelatine Manufacturers of Europe (GME), puts world gelatine production at a little over 320,000t, with pig skins providing the biggest single source today, followed by cattle hides and bones, and other sources including chicken and fish. Vermeulen stresses that GME members are able to produce gelatine grades, as their customers demand, that satisfy most ethical and religious beliefs, including kosher or halal grades, and also products acceptable to some vegetarians - but not vegans.
While there are significant non-food uses, food applications remain the most important. In Europe, 76% of the gelatine produced is used in the food and beverage industry, in savoury and sweet end products. Important non-food uses include the pharmaceutical sector, primarily for capsules but also for 'bioactive' collagen products. Among other non-food applications, the former use in photographic emulsions has largely been replaced by the use in inkjet printers, and there is a growing new use in paint balls. But it is in the food, health and nutrition sector where potential is brightest.
Technologists 'Swiss army knife'
A natural-source protein containing 18 amino acids, most of which are essential to the human diet, gelatine is still seen as a unique hydrocolloid, with the widest range of uses: thermo-reversible gel formation, texturising, thickening, water-binding, emulsifying, stabilising, and all this with elasticity, film-forming and foam-forming capability too.
GME says that gelatine is the "Swiss army knife" of the food technologist, with "no satisfactory alternative". Processing conditions during extraction determine molecular weight, viscosity, gelling strength and colour.
Classified as a food rather than an additive, GME notes, there is no single replacer for gelatine with this range of functionality. "Each replacer may replace one of the characteristics of gelatine, but not all," says Vermeulen. "Therefore one cannot say that it replaces gelatine. There is no substitute for the moment." Such sentiments are also borne out by suppliers of replacers. "While there is no single product that can match gelatine in all applications, there are various options offering promising alternatives," says Lorna Macfadyen, confectionery category manager for Cargill Texturizing Solutions, noting the need for a "multi-functional stabiliser" to replace gelatine in jelly-type confectionery and fruit gums.
"Everyone should recognise that gelatine is a unique and functional ingredient," says an Avebe spokesman. "And thus when a replacer has been developed it is usually for a very specific application or functionality."
Meanwhile, Vermeulen notes that using alternatives to gelatine may be much more problematic operationally for food formulators, with more products to store, and often more challenging processing requirements. Gelatine melts at body temperature, and so needs very little energy input to be incorporated into foods. Replacers often have to be used in combination, adding further complication. Finally, there is the all-important mouthfeel factor. In chewy confectionery such as fruit gums, gelatine can be replaced with starch products, Vermeulen suggests, but then the gums stick to your teeth.
Confectionery applications
Cargill's Macfadyen notes that starch products can constitute acceptable partial replacement for gelatine - "up to about 20%" for some jellies and fruit gums - while for 'wine gums', where starch and gelatine are often used in combination, Cargill's C*ClearSet range of starch derivatives is said to offer a "completely gelatine-free" product. She also notes that carrageenans can offer innovative new textures, with improved elasticity compared with other colloids, although these may need some modification to processing methods. Once such new taste or texture sensations are invented, however, they provide a springboard for yet further innovation.
Avebe's spokesman notes that consumers "do not normally associate confectionery products with animal derivatives" but, rather than speaking of "gelatine replacement", he says that the firm's new Etenia range of starch products provide a "new proposition" to the consumer "with an appeal all of its own". Vegetarian, kosher and halal compliant, Etenia has 'unique thermo-reversible characteristics' as well as the 'melt-in-the-mouth' effect associated with fat-like ingredients.
Up to now, Avebe's focus has been mainly on dairy products such as yoghurts, offering creamy, clean-label and indulgent foods; but the firm is now moving into the confectionery market with Etenia's texturising and functional gelling/thickening system playing a major role. Avebe notes a "strong pull from market for alternatives", but also that the confectionery market "seems more reluctant and conservative to change"
Paradoxically perhaps, the confectionery market is also seen as a major growth prospect for gelatine. Just as gelatine replacers are being used with gelatine to deliver innovative solutions promoted by replacer suppliers, so too can producers see the advantages of combining gelatine with other hydrocolloids for an enhanced product.
A recent case in point is gelatine giant Rousselot's announcement in mid-2008 of the use of combinations of gelatine with hydrocolloids such as pectin.
"By adding hydrocolloids like pectin to gelatine, you can create sweets with the same elasticity and a melting point 10 degrees higher," says Rousselot's technical service manager Paul Stevens, "which is very appealing in hot countries." He claims that this "breakthrough" has enabled the production of fruit-flavoured marshmallows with an acidic pH, which "had not been possible before"
Future prospects
The west European market for gelatine - along with the other major hydrocolloids - is seen as mature, with slow growth prospects in traditional markets. But there are undoubtedly new avenues to pursue, with gelatine's 'premium' status as an ingredient in food applications underlined by a somewhat limited supply (the availability of animal by-products).
Gelatine prices have been rising, chiefly as a result of increased demand for certain levels of protein. However, prices of other hydrocolloids have also risen as a result of movements in energy and commodity prices - energy-intensive production processes in some cases, and higher raw material costs in others.
For gelatine, there are new market opportunities of a geographic nature - in emerging economies, especially the Far East with its burgeoning population - as well as new applications in food and nutrition. As Stevens points out, reformulation of food products - to increase health benefits while maintaining taste, texture and shelf stability - is a big challenge for food manufacturers today, and gelatine has a key role to play. Because of its texturising and mouthfeel effects, for example, gelatine can replace fat with less calorific protein, able to bind five to 10 times its own weight of water. He says gelatine is a "perfect ingredient" to reduce fat or sugar content in foods, with all the weight management prospects that entails.
Fat replacement is seen as a "mega-trend" in the food sector, and Gelita's recent launch of Instant Gel Schoko provides an example of the possibilities. It can partly replace cocoa butter in milk chocolate with "valuable protein", reducing fat content by up to 25%. It is worth noting that world chocolate production currently stands at 3.5Mt.
On the health front, GME has submitted a health claim - related to joint and cartilage health - under article 13 of the EU's new health claims regulation, and Vermeulen says the results of this will be known by the end of 2010. Meanwhile, collagen hydrolysates - derived from gelatine - are beginning to make their mark on the health and wellbeing scene. With a lower molecular weight than gelatine, they are more digestible than gelatine and also able to penetrate the skin, with prospects for both the nutraceutical and cosmeceutical markets.
Since its acquisition of Germany's BHJ Peptan Product, Rousselot has been pushing forward with the "nutritional and bioactive" aspects of gelatine and hydrolysed collagen, with its Peptan brand of hydrolysed collagen. As Stevens says: "Hydrolysed collagen made out of fish raw material particularly meets the expectations of the cosmeceutical market."
A further growth prospect for collagen hydrolysate, identified by GME's Vermeulen, is in energy and sports drinks. Early last year, the US Department of Agriculture ruled that Gelita gelatine could be used in products labelled 'USDA organic'. Gelatine's future appears to be far from dim.