What is Carrageenan?
Carrageenan is a ingredient that is used in food for all sorts of reasons. They are a family linear sulphated polysaccharides that are taken from red seaweeds that you can eat.
What it Carrageenan used for
Carrageenan can be used for many things. Some of which include it being used as a vegan alternative to gelatin in setting desserts, for thickening, for retaining moisture in many different cooked meats, and helping food stay better for longer periods of time. This helps prevent wasting more food than is already wasted. It is also used in many other ways. It is used in beer to remove haze-causing proteins, toothpaste to prevent it from separating, shampoo as a thickener, shoe polish to increase viscosity, marbling to float paint or inks, pet food, soy milk to thicken, pharmaceuticals as an inactive excipient in pills and tablets, air freshener gels, biotechnology to immobilize cells and enzymes, fruit gushers, fire fighting foam as a thickener to cause the foam to become sticky, processed meats to substitute fat, increase water retention, increase volume, or improve slicing, and diet sodas to enhance texture and suspend flavours.
Health Concerns and Safety
There have been concerns about this ingredient and some websites have said that it is unsafe. These sources seem to be unreliable and have a bunch of information and misguided science, so that makes it difficult to know what is true and what is not. In the actual research and study of this ingredient, it was found that it is not harmful at all. It plays a major role in the food industry and many food that we already eat would not be the same without this in it.
