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Carrageenans or carrageenins ( ; ) are a family of natural linear sulfation . They are extracted from red algae . Carrageenans are widely used in the food industry, for their gelling, thickening, and stabilizing properties. Their main application is in dairy and meat products, due to their strong binding to food proteins. Carrageenans have emerged as a promising candidate in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications as they resemble animal glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). They are used for tissue engineering, wound coverage, and drug delivery.
Carrageenans contain 15–40% ester-sulfate content, which makes them anionic polysaccharides. They can be mainly categorized into three classes based on their sulfate content. Kappa-carrageenan has one sulfate group per disaccharide, iota-carrageenan has two, and lambda-carrageenan has three.
A common seaweed used for manufacturing the hydrophilic colloids to produce carrageenan is Chondrus crispus (Irish moss), which is a dark red, parsley-like alga that grows attached to rocks. Gelatinous extracts of C. crispus have been used as food additives since approximately the fifteenth century. FAO Agar and Carrageenan Manual. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (1965-01-01). Retrieved on 2011-12-10. Carrageenan is a vegetarianism and veganism alternative to gelatin in some applications, and is used to replace gelatin in confectionery and other food.
The first industrial seaweed farming of Eucheuma and Kappaphycus spp. for carrageenan was developed in the Philippines. The global top producers of carrageenan are the Philippines and Indonesia. Carrageenan, along with agar, is used to produce traditional jelly desserts in the Philippines called gulaman.
No clinical evidence establishes carrageenan as an unsafe food ingredient, mainly because its fate after digestion is inadequately determined.
All carrageenans are high-molecular-weight polysaccharides and mainly made up of alternating 3-linked β-D-galactopyranose (G-units) and 4-linked α-D-galactopyranose (D-units) or 4-linked 3,6-anhydro-α-D-galactopyranose (DA-units), forming the disaccharide repeating unit of carrageenans.
There are three main commercial classes of carrageenan:
The primary differences that influence the properties of kappa, iota, and lambda carrageenan are the number and position of the ester sulfate groups on the repeating galactose units. Higher levels of ester sulfate lower the solubility temperature of the carrageenan and produce lower strength gels, or contribute to gel inhibition (lambda carrageenan).
Many red algal species produce different types of carrageenans during their developmental history. For instance, the genus Gigartina produces mainly kappa carrageenans during its gametophyte stage, and lambda carrageenans during its sporophyte stage. All are soluble in hot water, but in cold water, only the lambda form (and the sodium salts of the other two) are soluble.
When used in food products, carrageenan has the European Union additive E407 or E407a when present as "processed eucheuma seaweed". Technically carrageenan is considered a dietary fibre.http://www.marine-science.co.jp/english/goods/carra.html , Marine Science Co. Ltd.
In parts of Scotland and Ireland, where it is known by a variety of local and native names, Chondrus crispus is boiled in milk and strained, before sugar and other flavourings such as vanilla, cinnamon, brandy, or whisky are added. The end-product is a kind of jelly similar to panna cotta, tapioca, or blancmange.
Carrageenan derived from Eucheuma spp. (today one of the main cultivated sources of carrageenan), known as gusô or tambalang in the Visayan languages, has also been traditionally used as food in the Philippines. They were first recorded in the Diccionario De La Lengua Bisaya, Hiligueina y Haraia de la isla de Panay y Sugbu y para las demas islas (c.1637) of the Augustinians missionary Alonso de Méntrida . In the book, Méntrida describes gusô as being cooked until it melts, and then allowed to congeal into a sour dish.
The most commonly used sources are Eucheuma cottonii, Kappaphycus alvarezii, and Eucheuma spinosum, which together provide about three-quarters of the world production. These grow from the sea surface to a depth of about . The seaweed is normally grown on nylon lines strung between bamboo floats, and it is harvested after three months or so, when each plant weighs approximately .
After harvest, the seaweed is dried, baled, and sent to the carrageenan manufacturer. There the seaweed is ground, sifted to remove impurities such as sand, and washed thoroughly. After treatment with hot alkali solution (e.g., 5–8% potassium hydroxide), the cellulose is removed from the carrageenan by centrifugation and filtration. The resulting carrageenan solution is then concentrated by evaporation. It is dried and ground to specification.
There are three types of industrial processing:
cleaned and washed seaweed
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extraction
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coarse filtration → seaweed residue
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fine filtration → used filter aids
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↓-------------- concentration --------------↓
preparation with KCl preparation with alcohol
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gel pressing alcohol recovery
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drying drying
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milling milling
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blending blending
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gel refined carrageenan refined carrageenan
Although the US National Organic Program (NOP) added carrageenan to its National List of additives allowed to be included in organic foods in 2003,68 FR 61993 (2003) and reauthorized it in 2008,65 FR 80548 noting it as "critical to organic production and handling operations",73 FR 59481 on November 18, 2016, the NOP's National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) voted to recommend carrageenan be removed from the National List. On April 4, 2018, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) (USDA) announced the renewal of carrageenan on the National List, allowing its continued use in food products. The document states,
The NOSB recommended removing carrageenan because they determined that alternative materials, such as gellan gum, guar gum, or xanthan gum, are available for use in organic products ... AMS found sufficient evidence in public comments to the NOSB that carrageenan continues to be necessary for handling agricultural products because of the unavailability of wholly natural substitutes (§ 6517(c)(1)(ii)). Carrageenan has specific uses in an array of agricultural products, and public comments reported that potential substitutes do not adequately replicate the functions of carrageenan across the broad scope of use. Therefore, carrageenan continues to meet the OFPA criteria for inclusion on the National List.The use of carrageenan in infant formula is prohibited in the EU for precautionary reasons, but is permitted in other food items. In 2018, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) reported that safety of carrageenan in food products is based 75 mg/kg body weight per day.
In the UK, the Food Standards Agency issued a product recall for sweets containing carrageenan, stating that carrageenan "is not permitted as an ingredient in jelly confectionery products as it presents a choking hazard".
In a 2015 review, the Joint Expert Committee of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and World Health Organization on Food Additives reported on the use of carrageenan in infant formula stating that the additive was "not of concern" as food for special medical purposes at concentrations up to 1000 per litre. (2025). 9789241660709, Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives, WHO Food Additive Series: 70. ISBN 9789241660709
Research has been done into the role of carrageenan in various forms of inflammatory bowel disease and allergy, with much of the concern centered around the specific α-D-Gal-(1→3)-D-Gal glycosidic bond present in carrageenan, which interacts as an epitope with TLR4 in cultivated human epithelial cells of the mucous membrane; this is linked to alpha-gal syndrome. Other mechanisms of carrageenan-induced inflammation have also been proposed.
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