Published on 2025-11-06
Last week, we floated the idea of exporting guar seeds from India to alleviate the impact of a 50% US tariff on goods from India, IF such a tariff is maintained. This is not a good idea for several reasons:
Guar gum buyers are advised to stick with buying the gum rather than relying on a domestic importer of splits or seeds to produce the gum. Pakistan remains a distant second source to India, albeit a competitive one. In any case, even with the 50% tariff, guar gum remains one of the most cost-effective hydrocolloids in the applications where it is suitable, such as dairy, bakery, pet food, and prepared meals, amongst others.
Note: Attempts to grow guar in the US for gum production seem to have failed. A new guar grower in Mexico is having more success.
Hydrocolloid Scare - Another Misguided Source Last week these tidbits spoke of a hydrocolloid scare related to xanthan in the EU. This week, it is the US that is the source of another pending, misguided and incorrect legislation that could affect carrageenan amongst some 50 other ingredients.
The state of Wisconsin has a proposal for an assembly bill, AB550, that would require any food product containing carrageenan to declare the following:
“WARNING: This product contains an artificial color, chemical, or food additive that is banned in Australia, Canada, the European Union, or the United Kingdom.”
The warning labels must be prominent, in high contrast to their immediate backgrounds, and in a reasonably visible location.
The proposed bill contains no less than FIFTY ONE different products, including "Melatonin", "activated charcoal", "potassium bromate", "artificial vanilla", and "bleached flour", amongst many others. The full text of the proposed bill may be found HERE.
We know for a fact that carrageenan is NOT banned in Australia, Canada, the EU or the UK. Every regulatory body in those countries has repeatedly approved carrageenan as being safe for food use. In the US, the FDA has even approved carrageenan as safe for baby food, an extremely difficult threshold of safety to achieve. Repeated efforts to have the FDA rescind the approval of carrageenan have failed.
IMR has written to the sponsors of the Wisconsin bill to point out the error(s) in citing carrageenan amongst ingredients that are banned in Australia, Canada, the EU or the UK.
If individual states start issuing their own, often misguided, food regulations, it will be the nightmare of multi-state food brands that will have to label statewide rather than nationwide. Guess who will bear the cost of increased expenses? An overview of federal vs state food regulations HERE.
Fiber Remains In Consumer demand for fiber and the positive image for fiber will continue to drive labeling tendencies. We have learned of at least one Nutrition and Health Division of a global food company that chooses to refer to hydrocolloids as "Fibers" and not "Gums". Technically, all hydrocolloids aside from gelatin are fibers. In practice, however, the use level of most hydrocolloids is so low that it does not significantly affect any fiber claim. Gum acacia is an exception. High levels of gum acacia are often used to boost a fiber (soluble fiber) claim. In any case, the FDA has some strict guidelines on which hydrocolloids can be considered as dietary fibers. Currently, alginate, guar gum, locust bean gum, pectin, HPMC, acacia gum, and konjac glucomannan are approved or "Allowed--Enforcement Discretion." EFSA has a broader definition of fiber, and pectin, hydrocolloids (mucilages and beta glucans) are considered fiber.
Gelatin is a protein and often used as such as much as for it's texturizing properties. Gelatin of course is the precursor to collagen peptide production.