Application of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose in food industry

Carboxymethyl cellulose is a kind of anionic, straight chain, water-soluble cellulose ether, which can greatly change the viscosity of most commonly used aqueous solutions. Its sodium salt is of practical value in the food industry, so CMC usually refers to sodium carboxymethyl cellulose. In 1958, China first put sodium carboxymethyl cellulose into industrial production in Shanghai cellu Road factory. At present, there are more than 300 kinds of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose products with different purity, different grades and specifications in the world. CMC has been widely used in food, medicine, toothpaste, detergent, cigarette, paper, building materials, ceramics, cosmetics, etc. because of its excellent thickening, dispersion, suspension, adhesion, film-forming, colloid protection, water protection, anti enzymatic hydrolysis and metabolic inertia Daily chemical industry, textile printing and dyeing industry, petroleum drilling industry and mineral processing industry are known as "monosodium glutamate".

CMC is used as an additive in food. It has many functions, such as thickening, suspension, emulsification, stability, shape preservation, film-forming, expansion, preservation, acid resistance and health care. It can replace gelatin, agar, sodium alginate and pectin in food production. High purity CMC is also called fibrin. CMC has been widely used in modern food industry in developed countries such as the United States and Japan, such as cold products, solid drinks, juice, jam, lactic acid drinks, condiments, biscuits and meat products. In this paper, the structure, properties, functional characteristics of CMC, as well as its specific application in food and development prospects are summarized.

Structure and characteristics of CMC

CMC is a highly polymerized cellulose ether made from cellulose, caustic soda and chloroacetic acid. Its molecular weight ranges from several thousand to one million. CMC is white or yellowish powder, granular or fibrous solid, odorless, tasteless and non-toxic.

CMC, as a water absorbent colloid, has all the characteristics of colloids. In addition, CMC solution can also be used as adhesive, gelatinizer, stabilizer, dispersant and film-forming agent.

Functional properties of CMC in food

Thickening property

It can control the viscosity of food processing, and obtain high viscosity at low concentration, and give food a sense of lubrication.

Water holding capacity

It can reduce the dehydration and shrinkage of food and prolong the shelf life of food.

Dispersion stability

It can keep the stability of food quality, prevent oil-water stratification and control the size of crystal in frozen food.

Film forming property

In fried food, a film will be formed to prevent it from absorbing too much oil.

chemical stability

It is stable to chemicals, light and heat, and has certain mildew resistance.

Metabolic inertia

As a food additive, CMC is not metabolized and does not provide heat in food.

Application of CMC in food industry

It is widely used in food industry because of its odorless and tasteless, thickening, emulsifying, suspending and protecting colloids, and no physiological toxicity to human body. In recent years, due to the development of various functional drinks, especially the advent of health care, unique flavor yogurt, food grade CMC has been more widely used.

Application in noodle processing

CMC has the characteristics of thickening, bonding, strong dispersion and water retention, and its aqueous solution is a kind of colloid with network structure and strong bonding force. Therefore, adding CMC to the instant noodle blank can shorten the kneading and mixing time, which is easy to operate, easy to shape, increase the toughness and strength of noodles, reduce the folding, and improve the quality rate of noodles. If it's fried, it's convenient

Adding CMC in noodle making can not only improve the structure and gluten of noodles, but also increase the moisture content of dough. CMC solution has the characteristics of hydrophilicity and oil repellency, which can form a film on the surface of noodles, so it can effectively reduce the oil content of fried noodles.

The application in bread

CMC has emulsifying function. CMC added in bread production can complexed with starch in dough. It can not only improve the internal structure of bread, increase the processing machinery and water absorption of dough, make the honeycomb uniform, increase the volume, and make the surface bright, but also prevent the retrogradation of gelatinized starch in bread and prolong the shelf life of bread.

Adding CMC to biscuits and pancakes can improve the flour texture, adjust the gluten of flour, make biscuits and pancakes well shaped, smooth and low broken rate; It can make biscuits and pancakes crisp and delicious, so CMC is also an ideal additive for these two kinds of food. Edible CMC is also widely used in quick-frozen pasta and snack, which can keep the original state after freezing several times.

The application of water in ice cream

Ice cream is a three phase polydisperse system characterized by a plastic foam emulsion structure. It is composed of gas phase, liquid phase and solid phase. In the gas phase, the bubbles contain ice crystals and disperse uniformly in the liquid phase of ice cream; In the liquid phase

The solid ultra-fine protein particles and insoluble salts are evenly distributed in the mixture.

As an important thickener in the production of cold drinks, CMC has an important influence on the quality of ice cream. Using CMC in ice cream production can improve the viscosity of the mixture, prevent the fat from floating, and improve the uniformity of the whole system; It can reduce the amount of large ice crystals in ice cream, enhance the melting resistance and smooth taste of ice cream, whiten the color of ice cream, make the product smooth and increase the volume of ice cream. At the same time, the use of CMC in ice cream can also reduce the use of solid materials, thus reducing the production cost of ice cream.

Application of vitamin C in yoghurt

The main purpose of using stabilizer in yoghurt products is to improve the viscosity of yoghurt and its texture, state and taste. The application of CMC in solidified yoghurt can prevent whey precipitation and improve the structure of yoghurt.

CMC, as a stabilizer of lactic acid beverage, has the advantages of good anti precipitation, heat stability and acid resistance, without affecting the activity of starter, increasing the viscosity of beverage, preventing whey precipitation and improving the structure of yoghurt.

Concluding remarks

CMC will be widely used in soybean milk, ice cream, ice-cream, jelly, beverage, canned food, vinegar, soy sauce, vegetable oil, fruit juice, meat juice and vegetable juice. CMC has excellent emulsifying properties especially for animal oil, vegetable oil, protein and aqueous solution, which can make it form homogeneous emulsion with stable performance, and its application scope will be wider.

As flocculant, chelating agent, emulsifier, thickener, water retaining agent, sizing agent and film-forming material, CMC is also widely used in many fields, such as electronics, pesticide, leather, plastics, printing, ceramics and daily chemical industry.