Cassia Gum Powder – Substitute of Locust Bean Gum

Locust Bean Gum is utilized as a gelling agent in the food industry. Basically Carob tree’s seeds are from where this locust bean gum is derived. When the Locust Bean is converted into a powder, it generates a sweet flavour that is similar to chocolate. The food industry uses this powder as a sweetening agent and sometimes even in place of chocolate. Very often, this gum is used as a thickening material in pet food. When this gum is mixed along with carrageenan, it forms a strong gel with great texture. It is also used in some non-edible products such as making paper, thickening the textiles, in cosmetic, to intensify the cigarette flavour, insecticides etc.

Locust Bean Gum Disadvantages

Animal study for about some time ago, discovered that more amount of locust bean gum in the meal is very toxic to some animals. Locust bean gum is difficult to digest sometimes. It delays the food movement from the stomach to the small intestine. The consumption of locust bean gum has resulted in the shortage of zinc, iron and calcium. As compared to locust bean gum powder, cassia gum powder is effective on the basis of its cost and hence that helps to increase the profit in the wet canned food industries.

Alternative for Locust Bean Gum

There are many types of gum available to use as gelling substance and binding agent such as Xanthan Gum, Cassia Gum, Guar Gum, Agar-Agar, Carrageenan Gum etc. Among these, Cassia Gum can be a good alternative to the Locust Bean Gum, because it holds the similar characteristics of locust bean gum. Cassia Gum has the tendency of forming a thermoplastic gelling substance along with carrageenan. The Cassia gum has the ability of holding the stability of the gel formed by carrageenan and the cassia gum. Also Cassia is recognized the best gelling substance and thickening material. Cassia Gum is generally used in the wet canned food industry. Cassia Gum acts as a thickening agent in the food for the pets. Alone cassia gum is not able to produce the synergy effect for the wet canned pet food and also cannot be preferred to use as an emulsifier, but when it is used along with carrageenan or the Xanthan gel, it forms gelling substance and hence it is useful in the wet canned pet food and even as an emulsifier.

Price Factor

The price of Locust Bean Gum has increased since last few years and it has reached at the level of three times more than the actual price. Due to this reason, it has become difficult for the pet food manufacturers to use Locust Bean Gum as a gelling agent in their pet food product because the price of the final product also increases due to the price of locust bean gum. This ultimately affects the profitability of the wet canned food industry. Because of this reason also, it was a necessity to find a substitute for the locust bean gum. Hence, cassia gum powder can be used instead of locust bean powder. Compared to locust bean powder, cassia gum is the most price effective. This helps to cope up with the price of the final product and hence will increase the productivity as well as the profitability of the wet canned pet food industry.