Gelling agents

Promoting gelation is the job of gelling agents, the additives manufacturers use to build jellies and other food gels. The familiar names cover pectins, agar, guar gums and gellan gums, each with its own setting behaviour: pectin needs sugar and acid, agar sets firmly and gellan gives clear, heat-stable gels. Formulators pick by texture target, processing conditions and label needs. Gelling capacity, the functional property describing how well a substance forms a gel, is measured on standardised tests before any recipe is scaled.