Ingredients: Hydrocolloids Make All the Difference in Ice Cream Formulations Pgina 1 de 5

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Home Articles 2012 Hydrocolloids Make All the Difference in Ice Cream Formulations

Hydrocolloids Make All the Difference in Ice Cream

Formulations
Gums such as tara, carrageenan, locust bean and cellulose are good
choices for creating a smooth creamy ice cream texture with reduced ice
crystal size.
By Diane Toops, News and Trends Editor

Sep 05, 2012

The USDA has specific rules that define what can and can't be labeled "ice cream." To bear the "Meets USDA
Ingredient Standard for Ice Cream" stamp, it must contain at least 10 percent milk fat, a minimum of six percent non-fat
milk solids, and a gallon has to weigh at least 4.5 pounds.

Along with the milk fat (butter fat), cream and delightful flavors, ice cream also contains stabilizers and emulsifiers.
Stabilizers help hold the air bubble structure together and give the ice cream a better texture. Emulsifiers keep the ice
cream smooth and aid the distribution of the fat molecules throughout the colloid.

"The key to producing a favorable ice cream lies within texture and ice crystal size," says Janae Kuc, senior research
and development scientist at Gum Technology Corp. (www.gumtech.com), Tucson, Ariz. "Consumers do not want to
dig their spoons into a block of ice. A good ice cream will have a decent amount of overrun [incorporated air], small ice
crystal structure and a creamy smooth texture. Gums are a major player in achieving these attributes and maintaining
them over time."

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"It's very difficult in this day and age when you have mass shipping and changing temperature conditions to not give
the ice crystals [in ice cream] a bit of help," says Maureen Akins, applications manager at TIC Gums

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Ingredients: Hydrocolloids Make All the Difference in Ice Cream Formulations Pgina 2 de 5

(www.ticgums.com), White Marsh, Md. "If you stabilize ice cream correctly, you won't end up with frost on top, which
can occur in ice cream formulations containing a minimal amount of stabilizers."

Gums such as tara, carrageenan, locust bean and cellulose are good choices for creating a smooth creamy ice cream
texture with reduced ice crystal size.

Vanilla named most popular ice cream flavor

Vanilla is the most popular ice cream flavor (92 percent), followed by Chocolate Chip Mint and Cookies-and-Cream ice
cream, which tied for second place with 3.7 percent saying it was most popular, according to a recent survey from the
International Ice Cream Association (IICA), which makes and distributes an estimated 85 percent of the ice cream and
frozen dessert products consumed in the U.S. IICA and the Washington, D.C. International Dairy Foods Association
(IDFA).

Premium ice cream, which has a higher fat content than regular ice cream, is the most popular variety (nearly 70
percent) with consumers, according to survey. Frozen yogurt (52 percent) is resurging in popularity among Americans,
while 10 percent said that novelties, defined as separately packaged single servings of a frozen dessert, such as ice
cream sandwiches and fudge sticks, are most popular. And nearly 15 percent said they are also seeing an increased
demand for no-sugar-added ice cream.

When asked about inclusions, 60 percent named pecans most popular, and 32 percent cited peanuts as most popular
with their consumers. More than three-quarters of respondents named strawberries as the top fruit, while 12 percent
said cherry and another 12 percent named raspberries as the favorite fruit inclusion.

Among novelties, the ice cream sandwich is most widely made; 91 percent of participating companies make and
market ice cream sandwiches. Nearly 75 percent of the companies responding offer an ice cream cone novelty. Bars,
sticks and mini-cups are also popular products, according to the survey, which allowed for more than one response in
this category.

"Gums are hydrophilic by nature and will bind and hold moisture," Kuc says. "These attributes can work to an
advantage for the ice cream formulator. If the water in the system is bound properly the ice crystal structure will be
minimized and controlled over time. This is especially true when there are galactomannans in the system such as tara
gum or locust bean gum."

In addition to controlling ice crystal size, gums will also promote a creamy, fatty texture and mouthfeel. "This is a great
attribute for regular ice cream as well as reduced fat or sugar free ice cream," she adds. "Adding carrageenan to an ice
cream will round out the texture and provide a fatty mouthfeel. Tara gum also provides a silky texture in frozen
novelties.

"Gums work synergistically when combined can improve upon texture and ice crystal size as well as overrun," points
out Kuc. "A great combination of gums for providing overrun in frozen dairy desserts such as ice cream would be a
combination of citrus fiber, tara gum, and cellulose gum. This combination will help to trap and hold air when the
product is churning. It also promotes a creamy texture and moisture management, which in turn translates into a longer
frozen shelf life due to ice crystal control."

"The best ice cream has both a high fat content and the presence of hydrocolloids," explains Akins. "The water in ice
cream can migrate outside of the matrix that forms ice cream which includes sugars, proteins, fat and water.
Hydrocolloids manage the water and keep it from coalescing and forming large ice crystals, which take away from the
perceived quality of these frozen desserts," she adds.

As Akins explains, "Any ice cream goes through freeze-thaw cycling. Water, inherent in the milk used to make ice
cream goes through phase changes. Some of those ice crystals are frozen, and as the temperature changes, they will
start to thaw. As you start to lose that water from its ice crystal form into its liquid form, it can migrate. That migration is
of water to the surface becomes the frost on top.

"When you add a stabilizer or good water binder like gums, it holds on to that water and keeps it in very small pockets,"
she says. "When the temperature goes down, and it freezes again, it will freeze back into a small ice crystal.

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Ingredients: Hydrocolloids Make All the Difference in Ice Cream Formulations Pgina 3 de 5

View TIC Gums' Does This Have Gum In It?

"For high quality ice cream, first look at the label for the quantity of fat," advises Akins. "The more fat you have, the
more stable and higher quality it will be. Another area to pay attention to on labels in order to make sure it will be stable
for the long haul during freeze-thaw cycling, is to look for guar (locust bean gum, tara gum, carboxymethyl cellulose)
because they are excellent water binders."

For both food product developers and consumers, TIC Gums has created a series of You Tube videos
(www.ticgums.com/icecream-video) titled "Does This Have Gum In It?" They're hosted by Marketing Manager Harold
Nicoll and include applications specialists such as Akins.

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