{"id":877,"date":"2012-11-05T08:01:23","date_gmt":"2012-11-05T08:01:23","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2015-04-30T02:20:23","modified_gmt":"2015-04-30T02:20:23","slug":"carrageenan-the-dark-side-of-chocolate-milk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/articles\/carrageenan-the-dark-side-of-chocolate-milk\/","title":{"rendered":"Carrageenan, the Dark Side of Chocolate Milk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You take the perfect thing like milk and you combine it with another perfect think like chocolate and what results is awesomeness by the glassful. So why do things that we love so much have ingredients that are so hard to pronounce? Does anyone remember their Mom adding carrageenan to their chocolate milk?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n First of all, what is carrageenan? It is actually in the family of gums derived from plants (which differ from gelatins, “think protein” derived from animals) which “are complex carbohydrates, long chains of sugar molecules (polysaccharides) that have the ability to absorb liquid in an amount that is many times their volume” (Joachim & Schloss, 2008). Carrageenan is widely used as a thickening agent because it can attract water, can be ethically harvested, has excellent properties for industrial food processing plants and is pretty cheap. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Carrageenan in food is actually not new, it has been around for hundreds of years because of where and how humans have developed it as a natural resource. Carrageenan Moss also known as “Irish Moss” or Chondrus Crispus<\/em> is a type of seaweed. Its job in seaweed is to help hold the plant erect while yet allowing it to be flexible as it gets tossed about in the surf. The carrageenan in plant cells improves the strength of the plant fibers without allowing it to break—think of a water bed. As mentioned above, it is among the most ethically harvested crop produced by small aquaculture farmers because it does not require soil to be tilled or fresh water to cultivate this plant (FMC Corporation). The Chinese have been recorded to use it as far back as 600 BC (Bechtel, 2012) and it also appears to be a long standing part of Irish culinary tradition. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Modern uses for carrageenan in food includes veggie burgers, soy milk, beer, ice cream and yes, chocolate milk. Here is why: “In industry they [gums like carrageenan] are highly valued because they have the ability to thin under pressure and then return to their original viscosity, a quality that makes them ideal for being pumped through factory pipelines without losing their thickening abilities” (Joachim & Schloss, 2008). <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n
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