Gelatin, gulaman, ‘JellyAce,’ atbp.

In fiestas and parties, the common gel dessert is always served. Some of these gels are soft and wriggle when shaken, while some are hard and brittle. Some gels need refrigeration or cooling to prevent them from melting. Others can withstand the heat. These dessert gels are served with or without fruit.

Traditionally, the ingredient in making gel dessert is the animal-derived gelatin, to which water, sugar and flavoring are added. Gelatin is a protein that is derived from the bones, skin and other collagenous materials from farmed animals. In order to form gels, gelatin is dissolved in hot water and cooled to set. Without cooling, the gels will not form well or the solution remains a liquid.

Recently, there have been objections to the use of gelatin that brought its price down in the world market, aside from oversupply. The controversial hoof and mouth disease and mad cow disease made the consumers wary of any products that come from farmed animals. Since gelatin is an animal protein from cattle or hogs, our vegetarian friends and Muslim brothers and sisters also have objections to its use in food and medicines. The use of fish gelatin has been introduced in Western countries with fewer objections than those derived from four-legged farmed animals. Fish gelatin has been traditionally produced in China, Japan and Korea but not in large quantities. (One might notice the gel formed when left-over sinigang soup is refrigerated.)

Other commonly used replacements as gelling ingredient are seaweed-based. Unlike gelatin, agars, alginates and carrageenans are complex carbohydrates. This article is written as an introduction to the use of seaweeds and their extracts in food, medicines, agriculture and other technical products.

Agar, as a dessert gel ingredient known locally as gulaman, is usually sold as wafer bars in the Philippines. It is also sold in powder and wafer strip forms. One has to boil the water in order to dissolve the wafer before allowing it to set as a gel. Because the gelling temperature is high, refrigeration is not necessary to obtain the gel. The agar gels are brittle and hard. Those containing relatively high sucrose have brilliant appearance. Some agar extracts produce harder gels when sucrose is added to the solution. Gels from purified agar do not have moist surfaces, hence they are used in the culture of microorganisms and in tissue culture. Similar to carrageenans and alginates, they have pharmaceutical and technical applications too.

The most common raw materials for agar production in our country are red seaweeds commonly called gulamang dagat. These marine plants grow in brackish to highly saline waters. There are other kinds of red seaweeds that are harvested and are also exported for agar production.

Another extract from gulamang dagat is called agarose. Agarose is a highly purified neutral agar that is used in biotechnology and in medical applications. Among the seaweed gels, agarose is high-priced. Unfortunately, we do not have an agarose industry in the Philippines.

Alginates are gelling ingredients obtained from brown seaweeds. Unlike gelatin, agar and carrageenan gels, calcium alginate gels are thermally stable, meaning they do not melt when heated. Hence, they are used mostly in refabricated fruits. Also, in synthetic crab sticks, meat ingredients are held together by alginates. Most of the time, alginates are used to increase the viscosity of solutions. Before the use of carrageenan in our local ice creams, alginates were used to make the texture creamier and improve its mouth-feel. Talking about non-food applications, one might also be aware that dentists use alginates in making the dental impression of a set of teeth. To print on textiles, one has to make paints viscous so that the paint will not smudge. This is done by adding alginates to increase the paint’s viscosity. Unfortunately again, we do not have an alginate industry in the Philippines; however, we are exporting the ground dried brown seaweed as ingredient in animal feed and soil ameliorants.

One of the country’s competitive edges is the farming of red seaweeds that produce carrageenan. Carrageenans have increasing applications not only in food but also in other products in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. The ever famous "JellyAce" is a carrageenan gel mixed with another gum to modify the texture. The famous "Alsa Gulaman" is not agar but carrageenan gel. When mixed with other ingredients, carrageenan gels can be made to produce properties similar to gelatin gel. Aside from being a gelling agent, it is also used as an emulsifier and stabilizing agent. Filipinos have been taking carrageenan from consuming guso. For decades, we have taken evaporated filled milk that contains carrageenan as emulsifying agent. Nowadays, carrageenan has found its way to meat products like hams, sausages, canned meat and other similar items, making them moist and tender. Some toothpastes and personal care products have carrageenan in them too.

The country produces two types of carrageenan: refined and semi-refined. Terms like Traditionally Refined Carrageenan (TRC) refers to the process in which the seaweed extract goes through a filtration stage to remove the cellulose found in the plant, thereby making the gel clear. Philippine Natural Grade ( PNG), Semi-Refined Carrageenan (SRC) and Processed Eucheuma Seaweed (PES) seaweed flour all refer to carrageenan with cellulose, sometimes called Alternatively Refined Carrageenan (ARC), thus, the gel produced is not clear. However, if the application does not require clear gels, the semi-refined carrageenan can perform the function of the refined one. Because the process of production costs a third that of the refined process, the Philippines has a number of processing plants producing such kind of carrageenan. Because of the world demand for carrageenan, the Philippines exports the final product and the seaweed raw material itself. We have been exporting the kappa-carrageenan and iota-carrageenan-bearing seaweeds to meet 70 to 90 percent of the demand for them. Just for 2001, the exports reached almost $130 million. Seaweed farming for carrageenan production is mainly done in southern Philippines, particularly in Tawi-Tawi and Zamboanga. With the expansion of seaweed farming and increased production all over the Philippines, the exports would likely increase and positively affect coastal people who are mostly marginalized.

Seaweeds are just some of the contributions that enrich our marine biodiversity. Their products have impact on our daily lives, particularly in our food and nutrition and in the economic upliftment of our country. They are just a clue of the rich resources in our archipelagic environment. With such information, Filipinos must realize that the sea is a blessing; its environment should be protected and its products should be developed with sustainability for the present and future generations.

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Marco Nemesio "Coke" E. Montaño is a professor at the UP Marine Science Institute, Diliman, Quezon City. His research interests include seaweeds and their utilization, marine natural products and marine environment toxicity assays. He is a member of the Technical Working Committee (TWC) for the Development of Seaweeds and Carrageenan, the AFMA National Fisheries Postharvest and Marketing RDE Subnetwork and the Philippine National Seagrass Committee. Send comments and queries on this article to [email protected].