How Z-Trim® Works

Simply put, Z-Trim® Ingredients bind water more tightly than any other ingredient in the marketplace, allowing food manufacturers to lower costs by selling more water. Finished foods made with Z-Trim® ingredients are, in most cases, lower in fat and calories, while maintaining a full-fat eating experience.

The superior water holding capacity and amorphous cellular structure of Z-Trim® ingredients are key to their outstanding performance in many functionalities important to food product design, including moisture management, texture control, emulsion stability, freeze-thaw stability, and many others – further Z-Trim® ingredients provides process and product stability across a wide pH and temperature range. 

The high water holding capacity helps to provide texture, mouthfeel and moistness, extends the yield of certain foods, and may extend shelf-life of some products. The amorphous cellular structure enhances freeze-thaw and heat stability, and helps to hold in place other liquids and ingredients to prevent pooling, weeping, separation, and settling in emulsified systems. Z-Trim® ingredients are rendered, by a patented process, amorphous, and thus, capable of gel formation.

The amorphous nature and very high surface area of single fiber or fiber fragments, along with the fibers’ hydrated dimensions, dictate the gelling properties of Z-Trim®. Z-Trim® forms a short and soft gel better than other soluble fibers, but retains the non-digestibility and non-fermentable attributes of insoluble fiber. The viscosity of Z-Trim® gel is dependent on concentration, and influenced by its high water holding capacity. Z-Trim® gels can mimic the viscosity of most commercial foods at an appropriate concentration. This characteristic is a key factor in how effectively Z-Trim® performs in both standard full-fat and reduced-fat products.