Application of gelling agent in particle suspension beverage

Nicholas, D.*¹, Chua, H.P. ¹, Siah, W.M. ² and Koh, S.P. ²

Abstract
It is often desirable to incorporate edible particles into beverages to increase their nutritional value and enhance their authenticity and visual appeal to customers. However, there is always a tendency for particles to either settle to the bottom, or float to the top of the beverage. In this project, a new formulation and processing technique have been created for making texture-enhanced particle suspension beverage (PSB). The desired properties of PSB are achieved by a combination of specific processing technique, specific amount of food gum as a gelling agent, citric acid and other food additives and a controlled processing temperature. The particles used can be pieces of fruits, grains, jelly cubes and other mixed inclusions. The developed beverage showed excellent suspension ability to levitate larger and denser dispersed particles (up to 0.6 g/particle) without significant effect on the organoleptic properties such as viscosity and mouthfeel taste of the original beverage. PSB shows a relatively low viscosity value of 6.12 ± 0.21 mPa·s, as compared to commercial cultured milk drink (15.64 ± 0.81 mPa·s), but slightly higher as compared to fruit juice drink (3.88 ± 0.81 mPa·s), carbonated drink (1.86 ± 0.94 mPa·s) and mineral water (0.91 ± 0.03 mPa·s).

Keywords: gelling agent, particle suspension beverage, levitate, viscosity

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