Guar Gum (412) is cold soluble hydrocolloid that belongs to non-ionic galactomannans family. It is found as storage polysaccharides in the cell walls of various seeds. It is used for thickening and stabilising properties and interactions with other hydrocolloids. Can help to prevent staling in bread and as a gluten replacement.

Application

ApplicationFunction
Soups, sauces and marinadesViscosity control.
Pastry fillingsViscosity and syneresis control.
Ice CreamIce crystal and Viscosity control. Fat mimetic.

Chemistry

Guar gum (E412) is a polysaccharide (a long chain made of sugars) composed of galactose and mannose.

Guar gum comes from the endosperm of the seed of the legume Cyamopsis tetragonolobus, which is an annual plant grown in arid regions of India.

Properties

Guar gum is an economical thickener and stabiliser. It hydrates fairly rapidly in cold water to give highly viscous, pseudoplastic solutions of generally greater low-shear viscosity when compared with other hydrocolloids and much greater than that of locust bean gum. High concentrations (~ 1%) are very thixotropic but lower concentrations (~ 0.3%) are far less so.

Guar gum is more soluble than locust bean gum. Unlike locust bean gum, it does not form gels but does show good stability to freeze-thaw cycles. Guar gum shows high low-shear viscosity but is strongly shear-thinning. Being non-ionic, it is not affected by ionic concentration or pH but will degrade at pH extremes at temperature (e.g. pH 3 at 50°C). It shows viscosity synergy with xanthan gum. With casein, it becomes slightly thixotropic forming a biphasic system containing casein micelles.

When guar gum is dissolved in hot or cold water, it takes around 4 hours to reach maximum viscosity.

It is not advisable to use more than 0.4% w/w Guar gum in a formulation as it can give a “mealy” taste to the finished product.