Food additives data book - wordpres

Polysaccharides 694
NAME: Dextran
CATEGORY: Polysaccharides
FOOD USE: Food packaging/ Edible films and coatings/ All food products
SYNONYMS: Alpha-D-(1 Æ 6) glucan/ CAS 9004-54-0/ EINECS 232-677-5/ Macrose/ Dextraven/ Gentran/
Hemodex/ Intradex/ Onkotin/ Plavolex/ Polyglucin/ Promit
FORMULA: (C6 H10 O5)n
MOLECULAR MASS: Variable; ranges from 2,000 to 500 million.
ALTERNATIVE FORMS: None
PROPERTIES AND APPEARANCE: White/off-white powder or soft flakes
SOLUBILITY % AT VARIOUS Solubility varies with molecular weight. Generally, dextran is soluble in water, sucrose solutions,
TEMPERATURE/pH COMBINATIONS: sodium chloride solution and ethanol solutions, but solubility in vegetable oils and propylene glycol is
limited.
Solubility declines with increasing molecular weight and increasing concentration. It is pHindependent
(pH 4 to pH 8). Elevated temperatures will significantly improve the dispersion of high
molecular-weight dextrans; however technically, increasing the temperature slightly reduces the
solubility of dextrans
FUNCTION IN FOODS: Coating in food contact surfaces; thickening agent; stabiliser; bulking agent
ALTERNATIVES: Dextrins; polydextrose; gum arabic and xanthan (application-dependent)
TECHNOLOGY OF USE IN FOODS: Dextran should be dispersed in cold water and heated for 10 minutes at 80°C to hydrate the
polysaccharide. A high shear mixer will aid dispersion, although prolonged shear of high molecularweight
polymers will reduce the viscosity.
Dextran is a linear polymer of glucose molecules that adopts a random coil conformation in aqueous
solution with minimal interactions between dextran molecules and no known synergistic interactions.