Fact of Carrageenan inside Various Food Products That You Consume

You might want to learn more on the fact of carrageenan as this substance are widely available inside various food products that you consume. Actually the carrageenan itself is a product which consists of soluble fiber that is created from edible red seaweed type. This food item is widely consume by human since thousands of years ago, but now it is also used as additive inside food product made by industry. The red seaweed type itself is an aquaculture which is very sustainable thus it is widely harvested in either cold or warm water in all five continents around the world.

Informative Fact of carrageenan list you should knowHowever, the name carrageenan itself is not familiar in people’s ear even though this substance is already widely used on many food products. This additive can make the product maintain its structure, stability and texture which is why many product mainly meat product as well as dairy product uses it. To make you more familiar with this substance, then let us take a look at this fact of carrageenan list.
1.      The usage of carrageenan as food additive is very versatile, thus you can widely found it in various food product.
2.      Not only food, but this substance is also used in dietary supplement as well as other non food product such as pharmaceuticals product, industrial product, personal care product and many others.
3.      Since carrageenan is extract from seaweed which is a type of plant that grows inside the sea, this makes carrageenan considered as plant product. Thus it is widely used to replace animal based product that has similar function and characteristic.
4.      Another nutrition fact of carrageenan that you should know is that because the unique properties of this substance, it will make it possible to create product with less sugar and fat content.
5.      The use of this substance can also extend the shelf life of a product without losing its quality thus reducing food waste.

6.      The use of carrageenan makes it possible to create product that does not need refrigeration, which in turn reduce the use of electricity and fuels.
7.      Inside traditional kitchen, this substance is often used to replace the function of thickening ingredient such as tapioca, cornstarch, or flour which can thicken and bind the other ingredient inside the recipe. This practice had already done for hundreds of years in Ireland.
8.      Fact of carrageenan is that this product is a plant product; thus it can be consumed by vegan or vegetarian. This is why, you will widely see a lot of vegan or vegetarian product uses this substance as the ingredient. Especially on the product which normally uses gelatin. The gelatin cannot be used for vegan and vegetarian product since it is an animal product, thus carrageenan is used as the alternative ingredient on those products.

9.      As this substance is bound on the protein, thus it makes it possible to create product without excessive use of either animal or vegetable protein. In turn, it make it possible to create product which still taste good and has more affordable price even by using less protein inside.
10.  Another fact of carrageenan as this substance is taken from plant that grows inside the sea; it does not need any land or fresh water to farm it. Because of this, it has become more sustainable with minimum processing needed to create this material. Which means it is also suitable to be used on organic food. By using this substance organic food industry can distribute their fund more on the technology and not on the creation of the raw material. Thus the carrageenan production will be more efficient and the product can be widely spread in more affordable price.

11.  Carrageenan itself is already approved as food additive without any known risk. The poligeenan which claimed as carrageenan is actually a different type of carrageenan from the type of carrageenan that is used as food additive. Thus the risk on poligeenan cannot be applied to carrageenan.
Those are several fact of carrageenan that you should know when you are interested in consuming many kinds of product that contains this substance as the ingredient. This food additive is generally safe to consume around 5% of your diet count thus you should not have to worry.

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