Study of the water binding in the gel systems of pectin and sodium alginate

One of the modern development trends of the confectionery industry is sugar reduction in products. Some sugar can be reduced in technological schemes of those confectionery masses in which structural stability is achieved by gelling. In such systems, hydrocolloids absorb and retain significant amounts of water, decrease its activity, which contributes to the microbiological stability of products during storage, and provides constant structural and mechanical properties. Gel systems, which are the basis of many confectionery products form a strong structure with the comprehensive use of structure-forming agents. It is found that the combination of sodium alginate and pectin produces additional hydrogen bonds between chains of macromolecules, which increases the water binding energy in the system and the bound water portion. It is revealed that the adsorption-bound water has the largest share in the systems. Its amount in the complex gels is by 8–10 % higher than the amount of bound water in monocomponent samples. That is, water removal in these gels will be slower. That is, water removal in these gels will be slower. This has a positive impact on the structural stability of gel-like confectionery products with reduced sugar in the formulation, provides microbiological safety of products during storage. The development of this direction will find wide application, since the structure of a wide range of confectionery products is stabilized due to the developed gel-like properties of hydrocolloids. These are pastila and fruit jelly products, fillings for flour confectionery and candies, centers for sweets, etc.