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Edible gelatin is a widely used gelling agent in today’s food & beverage business but constantly we heard complaint among consumers in China and other parts of the world concerning its safety to human health. So, let’s take a close look at this particular thing with this article and hopefully, it provides you a better understanding of the word “edible gelatin” that is commonly seen in the ingredients chart of numerous products that we consume on a daily basis.
The physical appearance of edible gelatin is usually colorless, translucent and flavorless, you can tell the quality by looking at those aspects as it’s commonly made by collagen of which was deprived directly from animal body parts, majorly cow, pig & fish. It is crispy when dry but undergone certain hydrolysis, it becomes gummy or sticky depending on the level of moist. For such traits, it is a great gelling agent in nowadays industrial production of food, beverage, medications, cosmetics and many more applications.
The reason for edible gelatin functioning in this way is because it’s made through an irreversibly hydrolyzation of animal collagen, wherein the procedure break protein fibrils into peptides. The molecular weight of the final product, which may fall into a broad range, depends on physical and chemical methods of this denaturation process.
Edible gelatin is basically a mixture of animal peptides and proteins. The raw material for making it includes skin, bones, connective tissues of animals. We break down the natural bonds between collagen strands into a smaller form through hydrolysis, for which it can be rearranged more easily in molecular level and its chemical composition is, in many ways, similar to that of its parent collagen.
It can be dissolved in polar solvents such as hot water, glycerol, and acetic acid but it is insoluble in organic solvents like alcohol. It absorbs 5 to 10 times weight of water to form a gel which melts by reheating. The melting point of edible gelatin is below human body temperature for which it’s a key ingredient to create mouthfeel in foods. The viscosity of edible gelatin water solvent is at its peak under temperature about 4 °C. Gel strength of commercial edible gelatin ranges from 90 to 300 grams Bloom and it declines if the temperature goes near 100 °C but not its viscosity. This melting point is not universal, it varies depending on the origin of the edible gelatin. For instance, marine edible gelatin’s melting and gelation point is lower than that of bovine edible gelatin.
I consists of 98-99% protein when dry but due to its lacking of tryptophan, isoleucine, threonine, and methionine, it is regarded as nutritionally incomplete protein. As below pie chart shows, the amino acid content of edible gelatin is the same as its parent collagen. It contains 19 amino acids in total with about 30% glycine, 15% proline, and 10% hydroxyproline as predominant containment. Edible gelatin’s gelation properties are majorly contributed by its high glycine & proline content.
A regular intake of hydrolyzed collagen, which is a product made with edible gelatin, affects skin quality by increasing the density of collagen fibrils and fibroblasts which stimulates our body to produce collagen. Studies based on mouse and vitro suggests that hydrolyzed collagen and its peptides have an influence on fibroblasts growth and chemotactic properties of fibroblasts.
Some clinical studies report that the ingestion of hydrolyzed collagen eases joint pain, the severer the cases are, better the effects. Its beneficial factors in such cases are likely due to edible gelatin’s stimulating accumulation of collagen in cartilage as well as stimulated chondrocytes production. While several other studies have shown that daily intake of hydrolyzed collagen increases bone mass density in lab animals.
In cosmetics, hydrolyzed collagen are widely found in creams, lotions, conditioners. It plays the role of texture tuner and moisturizer. Downstream collagen products are also found in implants or dermal fillers to address skin issues like wrinkles, tones, and scars, along with other problems. It’s accepted by authority all over the world and according to USFDA, the desired effect of such products can last for 3–4 months.
The most noticeable medical use is for producing oral carrier of medicines dosage like capsules and soft gels. Edible gelatin constituted shell eases our drug and nutrition intake by making those awful taste chemicals swallow friendly. Without doubt, pharmaceutical industry is always the most heavily regulated business in the world. The fact that we see nutritional supplements, over the counter drugs and prescription medicines all using edible gelatin as dosage carrier in almost all countries, proves edible gelatin is a human health friendly, natural source product.
As a by-product of the meat industry, there always will be concerns over edible gelatin for animal diseases. Today, this industry is highly regulated by FDA in almost all countries and potential risk of animal diseases is closely monitored by authorities. A USFDA study suggested that heat, alkaline treatment, and filtration could be effective in reducing the level of TSE agent containment and on March 18th 2016, it went on finalizing three previously issued interim rules to further reduce the potential risk of animal diseases in human food such as BSE.
Additionally, in 2003, EU’s Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) stated that the BSE risk associated with bovine edible gelatin is very low or zero. In 2006, the European Food Safety Authority confirmed on SSC’s opinion and recommended removal of limitation over raw materials for producing edible gelatin to include the skull, brain, and vertebrae of older than 12 months cow.
In my opinion, as long as the animal sources used for making edible gelatin are strictly monitored and controlled by a trust worthy party, the safety concerns over transferring animal diseases to human can be well managed.
With all that has been said, I hope our viewers can make your own conclusion on safety of edible gelatin. Even though, in China, it is still categorized as “food additive”, we hear continuous advocate for re-categorize it into “food ingredients” which, to me, makes perfect sense. After all, it has little difference, from the nutritional point of view, to eat edible gelatin than animal meat with skins. Ah, maybe not as tasteful.
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