Researchers at the AZTI-Tecnalia’s Food Unit and the team at the Mugaritz Restaurant, in the Basque city of Donostia-San Sebastián and run by chef Andoni Luis Aduriz, have drawn up a computer application for texture agents (hydrocoloids). This tool aims to facilitate the design of new products or to adapt original formulations, thus achieving results more efficiently and of enhanced quality.

This database of texture agents has been drawn up with an eminently practical goal as, throughout its development, it will enable food handlers and transformers to find specific compounds that best suit needs. As a consequence, the number of trials needed to get the desired results is reduced, cutting both time and development costs. The guide will also enable one to know if the texture agents used in a specific compound or dish are incompatible or have synergies with other texture agents. The database is available at webpage http://www.azti.es/texturas/

Texture agents are naturally-occurring carbohydrates and proteins from fruit, vegetable seeds, marine algae, tubers and cereals, amongst others, and that establish the physicochemical characteristics of foodstuffs. They are commonly used in the food industry and in restaurants.

They are used as thickening and gelling agents, limiters for sugar and ice crystal formation, at the same time as giving taste and stabilising foams, emulsions and dispersions. They are, moreover, a fundamental element in conservation, as they preserve over a long period of time the nutritive and sensorial properties that recently prepared food has. The innovative guide is a tool to facilitate the work of the food industry and in restaurants, and underlines the interaction between science and gastronomy. This database of texture agents will be updated in an ongoing way, both in content and format, in order to obtain maximum performance.

The updating of the guide can be adapted to the needs of the users (food industry and restaurants,) on demand. The content available on the quoted webpage refers to information about two hydrocoloids. Information about other texture agents and other applications of the database may be requested from: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Search parameters

The hydrocoloids guide from AZTI-Tecnalia and the Mugaritz Restaurant enables the information search on the basis of the following parameters: name, E number, function (water absorption, thickness, foaminess, suspension of solids, etc), application (drinks, meats, confectionery, low-calorie products, and so on), synergies (celluloses, gelatine, guar, etc.), the most usual ways of presentation, the temperature of dispersion, temperature of hydration, temperature of solubility, the gelling temperature, temperature of fusion and pH.

Link between science and gastronomy

The AZTI-Tecnalia technological centre and the R+D+i Department at the Mugaritz Restaurant have been working together since 2006 on the development of new formulations and textures, enhancement of foods and the creation of new food products for the sector industry.

The relation between the two bodies is generating a ‘laboratory of ideas’ that takes advantage of the creativity of restaurant activity, complemented by scientific-technical knowledge. The results of this symbiosis are in the new proposals and solutions for the food industry and restaurants, in products of great culinary quality, in new technologies adapted to the real needs of cooking and in dedicated training programmes. At the same time, computer tools such as this are generated from this interaction between science and gastronomy.

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