Gum arabic in soft drink

Arabic or acacia gum is the dried exudates of a various species of the genus Acacia, subfamily Mimosideae and family Leguminosae. The use of gum arabic by man dates back at least 4000 years to the ancient Egypt.

It is complicated mixture of long and short chains of sugars (arabinogalactan oligosaccharides and polysaccharides) and glycoproteins (proteins with sugars attached).

The gum arabic is added to the water phase of the emulsion and after the homogenization process it plays the role of an emulsion stabilizer.

Gum arabic is an excellent stabilizer for soft drink emulsions and has been the predominantly preferred stabilizer for soft drinks. Gum arabic is included on Pepsi's ingredient list. New gum Arabic substitutes made from starches are available for use in soft drinks and may be easier to mix.

Gum arabic is an encapsulating agent to protect lipid or liposobluble materials that are sensitive to decomposition and as texturing or filming agent in confectionery.
Gum arabic in soft drink

Emulsifier in soft drinks

The function of an emulsifier is to enable, and maintain, a uniform dispersion of oil droplets within the aqueous phase.

The small size of the droplets (1-2 um) means that the system tends to instability since the potential energy increases with total interfacial energy, which is the driving force of coalescence.

Emulsifiers are used to minimize the total interfacial energy and act by adsorbing at the oil-water interface in an oriented manner.

Concentrated emulsions are used to impart both cloud (neutral emulsion) and flavor (flavored emulsion) characteristics to the drink and are usually formulated to be used at a rate of about 0.1%.

The beverage emulsions diluted several hundred to several thousand times to provide flavor, color and a cloudy appearance for the beverage. A beverage emulsion must be stable in both the concentrate and diluted forms.

Brominated Vegetable Oil is an example of emulsifier and clouding agent used in soft drinks. It keeps flavor in oils in suspension and gives a cloudy appearance to citrus-flavored soft drinks.
Emulsifier in soft drinks

Essential oils

Essential oils extracted by solvent form herbs and spices found ready used in the rapid evolution of the soft drinks. They formed the backbone of the raw materials used by the early flavor industry.

Cola concentrate contains essential oils from coca, cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, neroli" lemon", lime, orange and vanilla. Citrus soda concentrates contain citrus oils. It orange oil dominates in orange concentrate while lemon, lime and neroli oils dominate in lemon-lime-concentrate.

In fruit flavored beverages, the flavorants are mainly essential oils extracted from the fruit. Using the essential oils as an emulsion keeps the flavoring oils in suspension in the beverage in the same way as in a neutral cloud.

For example, usually a citrus essential oil, suitable prepared and ‘weighted’ with an oil soluble gum/resin component. This is dispersed and homogenized into an aqueous solution containing gum arabic or other similar acting hydrocolloid.

Such an emulsion now contributes the flavor to the product as well as acting as a cloudifier for the beverage.

Flavor chemicals are often very reactive and some are particular susceptible to oxidation. The most unstable flavorings are usually those based on essential oils, particularly citrus oils, which are especially vulnerable to auto-oxidation.

The terpene fractions of essential oils are the most reactive components and detrepenated oils are thus somewhat less vulnerable to repaid degradation than either whole oils or the terpene fractions.
Essential oils