Switzerland: Innovative Applications of Natural Hydrocolloids in Food and Personal Care
Switzerland is renowned for its dairy products, chocolate, and high-end food sector. Despite limited agricultural resources, it boasts advanced food processing technology, with highly developed dairy, snacks, bakery, and functional beverage industries. As demand for healthy, natural, and low-sugar products grows, natural hydrocolloids such as pectin, citrus fiber, carrageenan, and konjac gum play indispensable roles in Swiss food and personal care products.
In dairy and beverage applications, pectin is widely used in yogurt, fermented milk, and fruit beverages. High-ester pectin maintains stability in acidic systems, ensuring uniform texture and smooth mouthfeel while preventing sedimentation of grains and fruit pieces. Citrus fiber enhances mouthfeel and viscosity in low-sugar, high-fiber beverages while providing dietary fiber. Carrageenan forms delicate gel structures in custards, puddings, and jelly, improving texture firmness. Konjac gum, with its transparent and elastic properties, enhances texture in low-calorie desserts and meal replacement beverages, offering a healthy choice for consumers.
In snacks and bakery, citrus fiber improves dough hydration and gas retention, keeping cakes, biscuits, and specialty pastries soft and moist while partially replacing fats to reduce calories. Pectin stabilizes jams and pastry fillings, preventing water separation and maintaining gloss and texture. Carrageenan and konjac gum increase gel strength and elasticity in ice cream, mousse, confectionery, and frozen desserts, providing multi-layered textural experiences for Swiss snacks and bakery products.
In sauces and condiments, pectin and citrus fiber improve viscosity, stability, and flavor integration, konjac gum enhances texture in low-sugar, low-fat, or plant-based sauces, while carrageenan ensures gel stability and sliceability, making sauces, syrups, and meat-based condiments easier to process and store.
In personal care, konjac gum and citrus fiber serve as natural skincare ingredients in lotions, cleansers, masks, and hair care products. Konjac gum provides smooth texture and moisturizing effects, while citrus fiber offers gentle exfoliation and adsorption, meeting Swiss consumers’ preferences for natural, gentle, and plant-based formulations.
Overall, pectin, citrus fiber, carrageenan, and konjac gum provide diverse innovation opportunities across Switzerland’s dairy, beverage, snack, bakery, sauce, and personal care sectors, supporting high-quality, health-focused, and differentiated product development. Lemon Biotech, as a provider of comprehensive natural hydrocolloid solutions, offers formulation design, process optimization, and technical support to help companies leverage these hydrocolloids in dairy, snacks, and personal care products for healthy innovation.
Citrus pectin is a natural polysaccharide extracted from premium citrus peel. It provides essential gelling, thickening, stabilization, suspension, and texture-enhancing functions. With its fine, clear gel structure, excellent acid stability, and strong process adaptability, pectin is widely used as a key structural ingredient in beverages, dairy, gummies, jams, bakery fillings, meat products, and plant-based formulations.
Our citrus pectin meets FSSC 22000, Kosher, Halal, and FDA standards, and is free from gluten and major allergens—making it an ideal choice for clean, natural, and high-performance formulation needs.
Our citrus fiber products comply with FSSC 22000, Kosher, Halal, and FDA international certification standards. They are non-GMO, gluten-free, lactose-free, and free of common allergens, making them the ideal ingredient choice that combines functionality, clean label compatibility, and natural origin.
Our carrageenan product series is certified by FSSC22000, ISO9001, Halal, Kosher, among other international standards, ensuring batch consistency and global regulatory compliance for customers across various markets.
Konjac gum has excellent water-binding and swelling capacity, forming highly elastic gels with multiple functions including water retention, oil control, elasticity enhancement, film forming, emulsification, and suspension.