Gellan Gum in Muffins: Can Low-Acyl Gellan Gum Replace Part of the Solid Fat?

🧁 Replacing solid fat in bakery products is not as simple as removing the fat and adding another ingredient.

Solid fats do much more than provide fat.

They contribute to structure, texture, aeration, mouthfeel and the way a baked product behaves during processing.

So when manufacturers try to reduce or replace shortening, one of the biggest challenges is maintaining the structure and eating quality of the final product.

A recent study published in Food Hydrocolloids investigated an interesting approach: using low-acyl gellan gum (LAGG) as part of a bigel-based foamed emulsion system to replace solid fat in muffins.

The results were particularly interesting because the researchers reported that up to 75% of shortening could be replaced while maintaining muffin quality.

🧈 Why Is Solid Fat Important in Bakery Products?

Shortening and other solid fats have several functions in bakery formulations.

They can contribute to:

• Structure
• Tenderness
• Moisture perception
• Aeration
• Volume
• Mouthfeel
• Thermal behavior

When a large amount of solid fat is removed, the product can become structurally weaker.

The challenge is therefore not simply finding another ingredient that "contains no fat."

The replacement system needs to provide some of the physical functions normally supplied by the fat.

This is where the concept of a bigel becomes interesting.

🔬 What Is a Bigel?

A bigel is a structured system made by combining two different gel phases, commonly an oleogel and a hydrogel.

In the study, the researchers developed a system consisting of:

Monoglyceride oleogel + low-acyl gellan gum hydrogel

The oleogel provides the lipid phase, while the gellan gum hydrogel contributes a water-based structured phase.

The resulting system can behave differently from simply mixing oil and water.

Instead, the two structured phases work together to create a more stable three-dimensional system.

🌿 Why Low-Acyl Gellan Gum?

The researchers specifically selected low-acyl gellan gum.

Low-acyl gellan gum is known for forming relatively firm and brittle gels compared with high-acyl gellan gum.

That property can be useful when a stronger structural network is required.

In a bigel system, this network can help reinforce the overall structure of the formulation.

The researchers found that adding LAGG reinforced the bigel structure and improved properties including:

• Hardness
• Adhesiveness
• Elasticity
• Serum retention

The gellan-containing system also showed improved thermal stability.

🧪 From Hydrogel to Bigel

This is an important distinction.

The study was not simply adding gellan gum directly to muffin batter and expecting it to replace fat.

Instead, gellan gum was first incorporated into a structured hydrogel phase.

That hydrogel was then combined with an oleogel to create the bigel-based foamed emulsion.

The resulting system was subsequently used as a shortening alternative in the bakery application.

So the approach was essentially:

LAGG hydrogel → combine with oleogel → form bigel → create foamed emulsion → use in muffin formulation

This is a more sophisticated formulation strategy than simply increasing the amount of gellan gum in a conventional recipe.

🧁 What Happened When the Bigel Was Used in Muffins?

The researchers evaluated the resulting foamed emulsions as alternatives to shortening in muffins.

One of the most significant findings was that the system could replace up to 75% of shortening while maintaining muffin quality.

That does not mean gellan gum itself replaced 75% of the fat.

Rather, the bigel-based foamed emulsion system was used as the replacement.

This distinction is important when interpreting the study.

The gellan gum provided part of the structural functionality of the replacement system.

📊 How Did Gellan Gum Change the Bigel?

The researchers found several changes after incorporating low-acyl gellan gum.

Stronger Structure

LAGG increased the structural strength of the bigel.

This is consistent with the ability of low-acyl gellan gum to form a relatively firm network.

Better Serum Retention

The gellan-containing system also showed improved serum retention.

This is important because a structured food system needs to retain its liquid components rather than allowing them to migrate or separate.

Improved Thermal Stability

The LAGG-containing system showed improved thermal stability.

That is particularly relevant to bakery applications because the formulation is exposed to significant temperature changes during baking.

Greater Viscoelastic Strength

The foamed emulsions containing LAGG showed increased viscoelastic strength and resistance to deformation.

In practical terms, this means the structured system could better resist mechanical stress.

🔥 Why Thermal Stability Matters in Muffins

A bakery formulation experiences several stages:

Mixing → aeration → depositing → heating → baking → cooling

The structure changes continuously throughout this process.

A fat-replacement system that looks stable before baking may behave very differently when heated.

This is why thermal stability is an important property.

The study showed that LAGG helped strengthen the structured system and improve its ability to withstand thermal conditions.

That makes the material more interesting as a bakery fat-replacement system than a simple cold gel.

🧁 What Does "75% Replacement" Really Mean?

This number deserves some explanation.

The study reported that up to 75% shortening replacement maintained muffin quality.

This should not be interpreted as:

> 75% of the muffin's fat was replaced by gellan gum.

That would be incorrect.

The researchers created a bigel-based foamed emulsion that functioned as a shortening alternative.

The gellan gum was one component of that system.

This is actually more interesting from a formulation perspective.

It demonstrates how gellan gum can be used as a structuring component rather than simply as a conventional thickener or gelling agent.

⚗️ Why Combine Gellan Gum With an Oleogel?

The two phases can provide complementary functions.

The oleogel provides a structured lipid phase.

The gellan gum hydrogel provides a structured aqueous phase.

When combined, the two phases can form a more complex material.

This can potentially help reproduce some of the physical behavior that is difficult to obtain from a single replacement ingredient.

The concept can therefore be summarized as:

Oil structure + water structure = bigel

And:

Bigel + aeration = foamed emulsion

This gives the formulation considerably more structural complexity than a simple oil-in-water emulsion.

🔄 Structure Matters More Than Just Fat Content

Traditional fat-reduction approaches often focus on replacing the removed fat with water or another low-calorie ingredient.

But the physical structure of the original fat is also important.

Solid fat can provide a three-dimensional structure within the food system.

Removing it changes the internal architecture.

A structured replacement therefore needs to do more than simply provide the same amount of material.

It needs to recreate at least some of the physical functions of the original ingredient.

This is one reason hydrocolloids such as gellan gum are being investigated in structured food systems.

🔬 Gellan Gum Is Doing Something Different Here

In many food applications, gellan gum is used for:

• Gel formation
• Suspension
• Texture modification
• Stabilization

The muffin study demonstrates another possible role.

Here, low-acyl gellan gum was used to help construct a structured multiphase system.

That system could then perform a function normally associated with a much larger amount of solid fat.

This is a useful example of how the same hydrocolloid can have very different functions depending on how it is formulated.

🥄 Why Not Just Add More Gellan Gum?

Because the objective is not to make a muffin into a gel.

Too much gellan gum could produce an excessively firm or unnatural texture.

The study therefore used gellan gum as part of a specifically designed material system rather than simply increasing its concentration in the finished food.

This is an important lesson for formulators:

The best use of a hydrocolloid is not always direct addition.

Sometimes the hydrocolloid can first be used to build a functional structure, which is then incorporated into the final product.

🌡️ Processing Still Matters

Even when the formulation performs well at laboratory scale, processing conditions remain important.

A commercial bakery system has to deal with:

• Mixing intensity
• Aeration
• Batter viscosity
• Depositing
• Heating rate
• Baking temperature
• Cooling
• Storage

The structured fat-replacement system needs to remain sufficiently stable throughout these stages.

A material that performs well in a static laboratory test may behave differently during high-shear mixing or industrial processing.

Therefore, scale-up testing remains essential.

📊 What Should Be Evaluated?

For a bakery fat-replacement system, viscosity alone is not enough.

Important measurements may include:

Property	Why it matters
Hardness	Bite and texture
Elasticity	Recovery after deformation
Adhesiveness	Mouthfeel and handling
Viscoelasticity	Structural strength
Serum retention	Phase stability
Thermal stability	Baking performance
Foaming behavior	Batter structure
Muffin volume	Final product quality
Crumb structure	Internal texture
Sensory properties	Consumer acceptance

The combination of these measurements gives a much better picture of whether a replacement system actually works.

🌾 Could This Approach Be Used Beyond Muffins?

Potentially.

The basic concept of using gellan gum to construct structured multiphase systems could be relevant to other foods where fat structure is important.

Possible areas of interest include:

• Cakes
• Bakery fillings
• Cream-like products
• Whipped food systems
• Reduced-fat desserts
• Structured spreads

But the exact formulation would need to be optimized for each product.

A muffin and a laminated pastry, for example, require completely different fat functionality.

So the 75% replacement result should remain specific to the studied muffin system rather than being treated as a universal rule.

🧬 The Bigger Picture

The study is interesting because it changes the way we can think about gellan gum.

Instead of viewing gellan gum only as a small-dose hydrocolloid added to control viscosity or create a gel, it can also be used as a building block for structured food materials.

In this case:

Low-acyl gellan gum → hydrogel → bigel → foamed emulsion → bakery fat replacement

Each step adds another level of structure.

This approach may become increasingly interesting as food manufacturers look for ways to reduce solid fat while maintaining the physical characteristics consumers expect from bakery products.

🌱 Final Takeaway

A recent Food Hydrocolloids study showed that low-acyl gellan gum can play a useful role in a structured fat-replacement system for muffins.

The researchers found that LAGG:

• Reinforced bigel structure
• Improved hardness and elasticity
• Improved serum retention
• Increased thermal stability
• Increased viscoelastic strength
• Improved resistance to deformation

Most importantly, the resulting bigel-based foamed emulsion was able to replace up to 75% of shortening while maintaining muffin quality in the studied formulation.

The interesting point is not simply that gellan gum can "replace fat."

It cannot do that by itself.

The more important lesson is that gellan gum can help build a structured system that performs some of the physical functions normally provided by solid fat.

That opens a different direction for food formulation:

Not just replacing an ingredient — but rebuilding the structure that the ingredient provides.

📚 Research Behind This Article

This article is based primarily on:

Design and characterization of low-acyl gellan gum–monoglyceride bigel-based foamed emulsions: Application as a solid fat substitute in an aerated bakery system.

Food Hydrocolloids, Volume 175, June 2026, 112515.

The study provides a useful example of how gellan gum can move beyond conventional thickening and gelation into the design of structured food systems.