Fruit-alginate interactions in novel restructured products

Novel, healthy, value-added restructured fruit products meet consumer demand for an improved diet containing increasing amounts of fruit. As primary ingredients, fruit purees promise to provide new outlets for visually imperfect fruit or fruit that is too small for the fresh or canned markets. Generally these new product forms require a texturizing agent such as alginate to control the functional properties of the final restructured fruit products. Traditional alginate and pectin gel systems are reviewed in this manuscript as are mixed gel systems. Recent research results describing the production and properties of novel restructured products containing high-guluronic alginate and peach puree without any additional calcium or sugar source are reviewed. Effects of fruit/alginate interactions on gel formation conditions and texture profile results are evaluated.