Nice ice, nice price

The cost-efficient alternative to Locust Bean Gum

Ask a typical consumer what their dream ice cream experience is, and it’s likely that the word “creamy” will come up pretty quickly. Indeed, it’s hard to think of many food categories where texture and mouthfeel are more important.

One of the most common solutions for mouthfeel in ice cream is Locust Bean Gum (E410), a stabiliser and thickener that prevents ice crystal growth and controls meltdown properties. However, it also has a less desirable characteristic. Because of regular supply shortages, it’s highly susceptible to price fluctuation and many manufacturers want to be less dependent on it.

Offering a price-stable alternative that doesn’t require major change to existing recipes has been a major goal for Palsgaard. The solution was tara gum (E417), a vegetable gum derived from seeds from the tara tree. It’s structurally similar to Locust Bean Gum and delivers the same functionality, but at a lower cost.

Now Palsgaard has launched a new range of integrated tara gum emulsifier-stabiliser blends: Palsgaard® ExtruIce 303/305 and Palsgaard® MouldIce 203 offer a number of functional benefits in ice cream, including stable overrun, heat shock protection and storage stability. They are also easy to use ― no pre-mixing with other dry ingredients is required before addition to the mix.  It’s suitable for applications including extruded ice cream, moulded ice cream, soft ice and frozen vegan desserts as well as palm-free, PHO-free, kosher and halal-certified, and produced in CO2-neutral factories.

More than 700 tara gum-based ice cream products or frozen vegan desserts have been launched over the past five years.[1] Don’t get frozen out – find out how to deliver creamy mouthfeel at prices that won’t send you into meltdown.

[1] Innova Market Insights