Gelatine

About This Product

Gelatine is produced by partially hydrolysing collagen from animal skin, hide and bone, and carries CAS number 9000-70-8. It is supplied as granules, powder or sheet, graded by Bloom value, a direct measure of gel strength, typically from 80 to 300. Outside food its two useful properties are gelation and surface activity. The gel is thermoreversible, melting on warming and setting again on cooling, which is what allows hard and soft capsule shells to be dipped, dried and filled as a continuous process. In photographic emulsion it performs a more subtle job: gelatine adsorbs onto growing silver halide crystals and controls their size and habit during precipitation, then holds them uniformly suspended in the coated layer, and no synthetic polymer has matched it, which is why gelatine remains in use in photographic and X-ray film. It is also a protective colloid and flocculant, a fining agent in brewing and wine where it binds and removes tannins, and a traditional adhesive and sizing. Bloom grade is chosen against the application, since capsule and photographic work demand tightly controlled strength and clarity. It is used in pharmaceutical capsules, photographic and X-ray emulsions, brewing and wine fining, adhesives and sizing, and in microencapsulation. Bio Green Chem supplies gelatine to specification on Bloom strength, viscosity, moisture, ash, pH, clarity, species origin and microbiology.