Chapter 7 - Celluloses as food ingredients/additives: Is there a room for BNC?

Abstract

The use of bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) as a food product, and particularly its potential as a novel food additive, is reviewed. The technology of production of Nata de Coco, as well as its properties and market, are reviewed in other sections of this book and elsewhere in the literature, and will not be emphasized in this chapter. Instead, its potential as a novel hydrocolloid for the modification of textural properties of food products is addressed. This work thus briefly reports on the already commercially available cellulose-based hydrocolloids, namely colloidal microcrystalline cellulose, and then reviews the studies which demonstrate the potential of bacterial nanocellulose in this field.