Diagnosis · Gel melts when warm
This is thermal hysteresis, and it is set by the grade
High acyl gels set at roughly 70–80 °C and melt again over much the same window — high acyl shows little hysteresis, so it re-melts almost as readily as it set. Low acyl is the opposite: it sets around 30–50 °C but does not melt again until well above 100 °C. Which behaviour you have depends entirely on the acyl content.
What to do
- If the product must stay solid when hot, move to low acyl. No dosage change will fix an HA gel in a retort.
- If the gel must melt cleanly in the mouth, high acyl or a blend is the right choice — that is the behaviour you are paying for.
- Before any reformulation, confirm the grade on the certificate of analysis. Grade mix-ups are more common than formulation errors.
- For baking and retort, treat the grade decision as final before you tune anything else.
The reading behind this
How this conclusion was reached
What is actually going wrong?
It melts or collapses when it gets warm
Check this against your own system
This describes the usual cause. What actually fixes it depends on your water hardness, total solids and fill temperature — send those three numbers and we will come back with a starting point, or with a bench sample of the grade this points to.
Ask about this diagnosisOther conclusions
Everything else the tree can land on
- Gel too soft — no calcium present
- Gel too soft — water hardness unknown
- Gel too soft — high acyl grade
- Gel too soft — low pH hydrolysis
- Gel too soft — remaining causes
- Lumps — powder not dry blended
- Lumps — hydration window missed
- Lumps — process details to check
- Pre-gelation — in the line
- Pre-gelation — free calcium
- Pre-gelation — cold tank
- Syneresis — water weeping
- Gel cloudy or dull
- Particles settle
- Slimy mouthfeel or off flavour
Other tools
Keep going
Three more decision aids for the same problem set.