Food Grade Yellow Powder Alginate Sodium For Food Additives

Applications of sodium alginate

Alginate is used in many foods and biomedical applications, due to its biocompatibility, low toxicity, relatively low cost, and mild gelation. In the food industry, alginate is used as a thickening agent, gelling agent, emulsifier, stabilizer, texture-improver. Nowadays, alginate is added to numerous kinds of food, such as ice cream, jelly, acid milk drinks, dressings, instant noodles, beer, etc. Alginic acid is used in pharmaceutical applications, it is added into tablets as a carrier to accelerate tablet disintegration for a faster release of the medicinal component, in cosmetics due to its functionality as a thickener and moisture retainer. For example, alginate helps retain the color of lipstick on the lip surface by forming a gel-network.

Alginate-based hydrogels are highly promising candidates for use as drug delivery systems and as biomedical implants as they are structurally similar to the macromolecular-based components in the body, and can often be delivered into the body via minimally invasive administration. Alginate is an excellent candidate for delivery of protein drugs, since proteins can be incorporated into alginate-based formulations under relatively mild conditions that minimize their denaturation, and the gels can protect them from degradation until their release.

Sodium alginate gels are increasingly being utilized as a model system for mammalian cell culture in biomedical studies. These gels can be readily adapted to serve as either 2-D or more physiologically relevant 3-D culture systems. The lack of mammalian cell receptors for alginate, combined with the low protein adsorption to alginate gels allows these materials to serve in many ways as an ideal blank slate, upon which highly specific and quantitative modes for cell adhesion can be incorporated. Further, basic findings uncovered with in vitro studies can be readily translated in vivo, due to the biocompatibility and easy introduction of alginate into the body.