The guar gum is an agrochemical derived from the endosperm of the cluster bean. In the food industry, it is used in the form of guar gum powder. It mainly acts as a thickener and stabilizer. It has many industrial used in other industries such as paper, textile, oil well drilling and in cosmetic manufacturing.
The product has important nutritional value in the body such as regulation of bowel movements, lowering the risk of heart diseases and even mitigating the effects of colon cancer.
Chemical Composition
The gum is extracted from seed by a mechanical process involving roasting, differential attrition, sieving and polishing. It is mainly comprised of the high molecular weight polysaccharides of galactomannans in a linear chain and side groups.
Food Additive Applications
It is primarily used in foods for food stabilization as well as a source of fiber. Many people love it due to its affordability as well as being a natural product. It affects the behavior of the water present in the food. In most countries of the world, it has a “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) status.
Some General Applications can be Illustrated in a Table Format as:
| Food | Usage Level | Function in Food |
| Bread | 0.5% | Enhances the softness and volume of the loaf |
| Fried foods | 0.5 -1.0% | Useful in reduction of oil uptake by the food |
| Yoghurt | 2.0% | Texture improvement |
| Cakes | 0.15% | Acts as a fat replacer and enhances the firmness of the cake |
| Sausages | Up to 0.32% | Enhances the softness of the food |
| Ice cream | 0.5 % | Formation of smaller ice crystals |
| Ketchups | 0.5 – 1.0 % | Useful in improving the consistency and reduction in serum losses |
Beverages
The guar gum powder has special characteristic making it a very useful additive in beverage production. It is able to resist breakdown under the low ph conditions in most drinks. It is used here for control of viscosity as well as for thickening. This powder also dissolves in cold water and it improves the shelf life of drinks.
Cheeses
It is used in cheese making to eliminate the problem of syneresis (weeping), through management of the water phase. Therefore, it serves to improve the texture and body of the product. In the manufacture of cheese, it can be used up to 3% of the total product weight.
In soft cheeses, it enhances the yield of curd solids and low fat cheese can be made with addition of guar gum at concentration of 0.0025 – 0.01% w/v. This will happen without changing the Rheology and texture of the product.
Dairy products
It is important in frozen products stabilization. In Ice cream, it acts as a stabilizer due to its water binding properties. It is very efficient in the “high temperature short time “processes, because it can fully hydrate in a very short time.
Processed Meats
Due to the strong water holding capacity in both hot and cold water, it is used as a binder and lubricant in stuffed meat products. It controls syneresis and prevention of fat migration during storage. It also enhances creaming stability and rheology of egg yolk emulsions.
Salads and Sauces
The guar gum has cold-water dispersability and compatibility in high acidic emulsions make it also useful as a thickener in salad dressings. It is used at a rate of about 0.2 – 0.8% of total weight.