Food Applications of alginate
One of the most unusual properties of the alginates has been the ability of soluble alginate salts to produce attractive, edible gels or jellies. This has been used for production of dry powder to give a quick setting gel. The sodium alginate stabilizers possess good water-holding properties, are readily dispersible in ice-cream mixes, and contribute good body properties and excellent texture production. Addition of sodium alginate (less than 0.5%) increased the viscosity of mixes significantly. The presence of sodium alginate also minimizes surface hardening and improves the texture of the processed cheese. The addition of about 0.15% sodium alginate is sufficient to thicken cream and to act as a stabilizer \upon whipping.
The oxidative rancidity in the quick frozen fish can be prevented by block freezing fish in alginate jelly. Alginate films when applied on edible meat as a coating composed of a slurry of corn starch and sodium alginate, enabled to improve the texture and juiciness and in some cases, color, appearance and odor as well. The film forming properties of calcium alginate has been used as a food packaging or coating material since it is edible in nature and it is more extensively being used as a synthetic sausage casing.