Gelatin is the collagen component of connective tissue such as animal skin, bones, and muscle membranes, which can be degraded into white or pale yellow flakes or powder particles with a slight gloss. It is a nonvolatile, transparent, and hard amorphous material that is soluble in hot water and insoluble in cold water, but can slowly absorb water, expand, and soften. According to the different types of gelatin, it can be divided into edible gelatin, medicinal gelatin, photographic gelatin, and industrial gelatin.

Edible gelatin

Edible gelatin is collagen made from the bones and skin of pigs, cattle, sheep, and other animals through denaturation and degradation. It is a pure protein. It is easily absorbed by the human body. It has rich nutritional value. In addition, gelatin foods made from wool have certain therapeutic effects on certain diseases. Commonly used in jelly, food coloring, high-grade soft candy, ice cream, dry vinegar, yogurt, frozen food, etc.

Medicinal gelatin
Medical gelatin is used in the production of pharmaceutical products such as cod liver oil and capsules. Due to its use in drug production, its quality also determines the safety of drug use. Its heavy metal content, microorganisms, preservatives, etc. have quite strict requirements.

Photographic gelatin
Photographic gelatin is mainly used in the production of photosensitive materials and plays an important role in the exposure and development stages of films. Widely used in the production of various films, films, medical X-ray films, printing films, photographic paper and other photosensitive industries.

Industrial gelatin
Industrial gelatin is a fine chemical made from animal skin and bones. Widely used for thickening, stabilizing, agglomerating, and bonding in industries such as plate, furniture, matches, feed, and paper making.

How to distinguish between industrial gelatin and edible gelatin?

1. Industrial gelatin products are generally characterized by high impurities, low viscosity and toughness, poor quality, and fragility. In this way, we can determine whether industrial gelatin has been added.

2. Edible gelatin is transparent, white, and relatively clean, while industrial gelatin products generally have bright colors. Because there are many impurities, some additives can be used to hide impurities, so the bright color may be added with industrial gelatin.

3. Generally, industrial gelatin is used to reduce costs. In many aspects, including quality, materials, technology, and the environment, it can be relatively poor, and the products produced are not so exquisite.

Gelatin inspection items and standards

The gelatin test items include:

Composition analysis, formula analysis and reduction, unknown substance analysis, material identification, fault diagnosis analysis, comparative analysis, material thermal analysis, qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis, appearance, characteristics, density, moisture, weight loss on drying, concentration, ash, Brinell viscosity, gel strength, transparency, water insoluble, sulfur dioxide content, heavy metal content, total bacteria, toughness, impact strength, high and low temperature resistance, temperature change, etc

The following are the test standards for gelatin:

Qb/t 1995-2005 industrial gelatin

QB/t2354-2005 Pharmaceutical Gelatin

Qb/t 4087-2010 edible gelatin

Db51/t 1924-2014 Determination of chromium in industrial gelatin Flame atomic absorption spectrometric method

Db22/t 2691-2017 Real time fluorescence PCR qualitative detection of raccoon dog derived components in gelatin