Thickening agent

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Thickening agent

Thickening agents, or thickeners, are substances which, when added to an aqueous mixture, increase its viscosity

Viscosity

Viscosity is a measure of the Drag of a fluid which is being deformed by either shear stress or extensional stress. In everyday terms , viscosity is "thickness"....
without substantially modifying its other properties, such as taste

Taste

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. They provide body, increase stability

Strength of materials

In materials science, the strength of a material refers to the material's ability to withstand an applied stress without failure. Yield strength refers to the point on the engineering stress-strain curve beyond which the material begins deformation that cannot be reversed upon removal of the loading....
, and improve suspension

Suspension (chemistry)

In chemistry, a suspension is a heterogeneous fluid containing solid particles that are sufficiently large for sedimentation. Usually they must be larger than 1 micrometre....
of added ingredients. Thickening agents are often used as food additive

Food additive

Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavour or improve its taste and appearance.Some additives have been used for centuries; for example, preserving food by pickling , edible salting, as with bacon, preserving sweets or using sulfur dioxide as in some wines....
s and in cosmetic

Cosmetic

Cosmetic may refer to:*Cosmetics, or make-up, substances to enhance the beauty of the human body, apart from simple cleaning*Cosmetic, an adjective describing beauty, aesthetics, or appearance, especially concerning the human body...
s and personal hygiene products.

thickeners frequently are based on either polysaccharide

Polysaccharide

Polysaccharides are relatively complex carbohydrates. They are polymers made up of many monosaccharides joined together by glycosidic bonds. They are therefore very large, often branched, macromolecules....
s (starch

Starch

Penicillin

Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They are Beta-lactam antibiotics used in the treatment of bacterial infections caused by susceptible, usually Gram-positive, organisms....
), or proteins.

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Food

Food thickeners frequently are based on either polysaccharide

Polysaccharide

Starch

Penicillin

Starch

File:Amylose2.svgFile:Amylopektin Sessel.svgStarch or amylum is a polysaccharide carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds....
used for this purpose is a fecula (from the Latin faecula, diminutive of faex meaning "dregs"). This category includes arrowroot

Arrowroot

Arrowroot, or obedience plant , is a large perennial plant herb of genus Maranta found in rainforest habitats. Arrowroot is also the name of the edible starch from the rhizomes of West Indian arrowroot....
, cornstarch

Cornstarch

Erythronium japonicum

Katakuri is a species of Liliaceae native to Japan, Korea and northeastern China....
, potato starch

Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial plant Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family. The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well....
, sago

Sago

Sago is a starch extracted from the pith of sago palm stems, Metroxylon sagu. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of Papua New Guinea and the Moluccas, where it is called saksak and sagu....
, and tapioca

Tapioca

Tapioca is a flavorless, colorless, odorless starch extracted from the root of the plant species Manihot esculenta. This species, native to South America, is now cultivated worldwide and has many names, including cassava, bitter-cassava, manioc, "mandioca", "aipim", "macaxeira", "manioca", "boba", "yuca" , "Sabudana" and "kappa"....
. Vegetable gums used as food thickeners include alginin

Alginic acid

Alginic acid, also called algin or alginate, is a viscous natural gum that is abundant in the cell walls of brown algae. It ranges from white to yellowish-brown, and takes filamentous, granular and powdered forms....
, guar gum

Guar gum

Guar gum, also called guaran, is a galactomannan. It is primarily the ground endosperm of guar beans. The guar seeds are dehusked, milled and screened to obtain the guar gum....
, locust bean gum

Locust bean gum

Locust bean gum is a galactomannan vegetable gum extraction from the seed of the Carob tree. It is used as a thickening agent and gelling agent in food technology....
, and xanthan gum

Xanthan gum

Xanthan gum is a polysaccharide used as a food additive and rheology modifier . It is produced by a process involving fermentation of glucose or sucrose by the Xanthomonas campestris bacterium....
. Proteins used as food thickeners include collagen

Collagen

Collagen is the main protein of connective tissue in animals and the most abundant protein in mammals, making up about 25% to 35% of the whole-body protein content....
, egg white

Egg white

File:Chicken egg01 monovular.jpgEgg white is the common name for the clear liquid contained within an Egg . It is the cytoplasm of the egg, which until fertilization is a single Cell ....
s, furcellaran, gelatin

Gelatin

Gelatin is a translucent, colorless, brittle, nearly tasteless solid, derived from the collagen inside animals' skin and mostly bones. It has been commonly used as a gelling agent in food, pharmaceutical, photography, and cosmetic manufacturing....
. Sugars include agar

Agar

Agar or agar agar is a gelatinous substance derived from seaweed. Historically and in a modern context, it is chiefly used as an ingredient in desserts throughout Japan, but in the past century has found extensive use as a solid substrate to contain Growth medium for microbiology work....
and carrageenan

Carrageenan

Carrageenans or carrageenins are a family of linear sulphated polysaccharides extracted from red seaweeds. The name is derived from a type of seaweed that is abundant along the Ireland coastline....
. Other thickening agents act on the proteins already present in a food. One example is sodium pyrophosphate

Sodium pyrophosphate

Tetrasodium pyrophosphate, also called sodium pyrophosphate or tetrasodium phosphate, is a slightly toxic and mildly irritant colorless Transparency crystalline chemical compound with the chemical formula 427....
, which acts on casein

Casein

Casein is the predominant phosphoprotein that accounts for nearly 80% of proteins in cow milk and cheese. Milk-clotting proteases act on the soluble portion of the caseins, K-Casein, thus originating an unstable micelle state that results in clot formation....
in milk during the preparation of instant pudding.

The relative merits of these thickeners depend on numerous factors, including their chemistry. For example, for acidic foods, arrowroot

Arrowroot

Cornstarch

Cornstarch, or cornflour, is the starch of the corn grain. It is also grown from the endosperm, or white heart, of the corn seed. It has a distinctive appearance and feel when mixed raw with water or milk, giving easily to gentle pressure but resisting sudden pressure ....
, which loses thickening potency in acidic mixtures. At (acidic) pH levels below 4.5, guar gum has sharply reduced aqueous solubility, thus also reducing its thickening capability. If the food is to be frozen, tapioca or arrowroot are preferable over cornstarch, which becomes spongy when frozen.

Many other food ingredients are used as thickeners, usually in the final stages of preparation of specific foods. These thickeners have a flavor and are not markedly stable, thus are not suitable for general use. However, they are very convenient and effective, and hence are widely used. Flour

Flour

Flour is a powder made of cereal grains. It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many civilizations, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history....
is often used for thickening gravies

Gravy

Gravy is a sauce made often from the juices that run naturally from meat or vegetables during cooking. It is a smooth, non-chunky liquid. Ready-made bouillon cube and powders can be used as a substitute for natural meat or vegetable extracts....
, gumbo

Gumbo

Gumbo is a stew or soup originating in Louisiana, and found across the Gulf Coast of the United States and into the Southern United States. It consists primarily of a strong Stock , meat and/or shellfish, a thickener, and the vegetable "Holy trinity " of celery, bell peppers and onion....
s, and stew

Stew

A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy.Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables , meat, poultry, sausages and seafood....
s. It must be cooked in thoroughly to avoid the taint of uncooked flour. Roux

Roux

Roux is a mixture of wheat flour and fat, traditionally clarified butter. It is the thickening agent of three of the Sauce#Sauces in French cuisine of classical French cooking: sauce b?chamel, sauce velout?, and sauce espagnole....
, a mixture of flour and fat, made into a paste before the liquid is added, is used for gravies, sauce

Sauce

In cooking, a sauce is liquid or sometimes semi-solid food served on or used in preparing other foods. Sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to another dish....
s and stews. Cereal grains (oatmeal

Oatmeal

Oatmeal is a product of ground oat groats or a porridge made from this product . The term, 'oatmeal' can refer also to other products made from oat groats, such as steel-cut oats, crushed oats, and rolled oats....
, couscous

Couscous

Couscous or kuskus as it is known in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt is a Berber people dish consisting of spherical granules made by rolling and shaping moistened semolina wheat and then coating them with finely ground wheat flour....
, farina

Farina

Farina, from the Italian language word for "flour", may refer to:...
, etc.) are used to thicken soup

Soup

Soup is a food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables in Stock or hot/boiling water, until the flavor is extracted, forming a broth....
s. Yogurt is popular in Eastern Europe and Middle East for thickening soups. Soups can also be thickened by adding grated starchy vegetables before cooking, though these will add their own flavour. Tomato puree also adds thickness as well as flavour. Egg yolk

Egg yolk

An egg yolk is the part of an Egg which serves as the food source for the developing embryo inside. Prior to fertilization the yolk together with the germinal disc is a single Cell ....
s have rich flavor and offer a velvety smooth texture but can prove to be difficult to use. Other thickeners used by cooks are nuts

Nut (fruit)

Nut is a general term for the large, dry, oily seed or fruit of some plant. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts....
(including rehan) or glaces

Demi-glace

Demi-glace is a rich brown sauce in French cuisine used by itself or as a base for other sauces. The term comes from the French language word glace, which used in reference to a sauce means icing or glaze....
made of meat

Meat

In modern English usage, meat most often refers to animal biological tissue used as food, mostly skeletal muscle and associated fat, but it may also refer to offal, including livers, skin, brains, bone marrow, kidneys, in some countries lungs, and a variety of other internal organs as well as blood....
or fish

Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
.

When using a thickening agent, care must be taken not to overcook the food. Some starches lose their thickening quality when cooked for too long or at too high a temperature, and thickened food may burn more easily during cooking. As an alternative to adding more thickener, recipes may call for reduction of the food's water content by lengthy simmering. When cooking, it is generally better to add thickener cautiously; if over-thickened, more water may be added but loss of flavour and texture may result.

Food thickening can be important for people facing medical issues with chewing or swallowing, as foods with a thicker consistency can reduce the chances of choking

Choking

Choking is the mechanical obstruction of the flow of air from the environment into the lungs. Choking prevents breathing, and can be partial or complete, with partial choking allowing some,...
, or of inhalation of liquids or food particles, which can lead to aspiration pneumonia

Aspiration pneumonia

Aspiration pneumonia is bronchopneumonia that develops due to the entrance of foreign materials that enter the bronchial tree, usually oral or gastric contents ....
.

Cosmetics

Thickening agents used in cosmetics or personal hygiene products include polyethylene glycol

Polyethylene glycol

Poly , also known as poly or polyoxyethylene , is the most commercially important type of Ether. PEG, PEO or POE refers to an oligomer or polymer of ethylene oxide....
, synthetic polymers such as carbomer

Carbomer

In organic chemistry, a carbomer is an expanded molecule obtained by insertion of a C2 unit in a given molecule . Carbomers differ from their templates in size but not in symmetry when each C?C single bond is replaced by at least one alkyne bond, and when a double bond is replaced by an allene bond....
(a trade name for polyacrylic acid

Polyacrylic acid

Poly or PAA is a type of polymer known as a polyelectrolyte. Polymers are macromolecules made up of many small monomers. The monomer of poly is acrylic acid....
) and vegetable gums. Some thickening agents may also function as stabilizers

Stabilizers

The Stabilizers were an United States pop/rock duo founded in the early 1980s by musicians Dave Christenson and Rich Nevens. With Christenson on lead vocals and Nevens on guitars and occasional keyboards, they spent the first few years touring the Pennsylvania area and recording original compositions on a 4-track recorder....
when they are used to maintain the stability of an emulsion

Emulsion

An emulsion is a mixture of two immiscible liquids. One liquid is dispersion in the other . Many emulsions are oil/water emulsions, with dietary fats being one common type of oil encountered in everyday life....
. Some emollient

Emollient

Emollients are substances that soften and soothe the skin. They are used to correct dryness and scaling of the skin. They are a key component in the manufacture of lipstick, lotions, and other cosmetic products....
s, such as petroleum jelly

Petroleum jelly

Petroleum jelly, petrolatum or soft paraffin is a semi-solid mixture of hydrocarbons , originally promoted as a topical ointment for its healing properties....
and various wax

Wax

Wax has traditionally referred to a substance that is secreted by bees and used by them in constructing their honeycombs.It is an imprecisely defined term generally understood to be a substance with properties similar to beeswax, namely...
es may also function as thickening agents in an emulsion.

Incendiary devices

Many fuels used in incendiary device

Incendiary device

Incendiary devices or incendiary bombs are bombs designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using materials such as napalm, thermite, chlorine trifluoride, or white phosphorus incendiary....
s require thickening for increased performance. Aluminium salts of fatty acid

Fatty acid

In chemistry, especially biochemistry, a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid often with a long unbranched aliphatic tail , which is either saturation or Unsaturated compound....
s are frequently used. Some formulations (e.g. Napalm-B) use polymeric thickeners, namely polystyrene

Polystyrene

Polystyrene , sometimes abbreviated PS, is an Aromaticity polymer made from the aromatic monomer styrene, a liquid hydrocarbon that is commercially manufactured from petroleum by the chemical industry....
. Thickened pyrophoric agent, a pyrophoric variant to napalm, is a triethylaluminium

Triethylaluminium

Triethylaluminium or TEA is a volatile organometallic compound which is used in various chemical processing and as an ignitor for jet engine and rocket engine engines....
thickened with polyisobutylene.

Thickening agent

Food

Cosmetics

Incendiary devices

See also

External links