Is Carrageenan Safe to Consume? Health Food Grade Type Information

There are still a lot of people that wonder is carrageenan safe to consume since there are a lot of controversies revolved around it. Furthermore there is carrageenan everywhere since it is used inside many kinds of product as additive. Not only the product that contains this substance is available in common supermarket but the product that contain carrageenan, is also available in stores which serve natural food. There seems to be no problem with this product seeing it is widely used inside many product created by the food industry. However several controversies start to damage that reputation.

Is carrageenan safe to consume by human?

Carrageenan itself is a substance which in the same family as sulfated polysaccharides. This substance is actually taken from edible red seaweed as an extract. The extract would then be used by food industry in many of their food product. This additive is known for its thickening, stabilizing and gelling properties which is needed by the food industry. As it is taken from plant extract, thus it can be considered as vegan, organic, gluten free, GMO free, kosher, and halal as it does not contains any animal fats.

Furthermore this substance itself is also widely available compared to other ingredient that has the same properties. The price is also less expensive compared to other ingredient that has the same properties. Thus the usage of the carrageenan inside the organic and natural food is reasonable since it can press the production cost which makes the product more affordable for the market.

You might also see this substance inside dietary product and wonder is carrageenan safe for diet. As those dietary products commonly only contain fewer amounts of fat, sugar, salt, and calories, thus it is quite hard to maintain the appearance of the product as its higher calories product counterpart. But by the usage of carrageenan as the stabilizer for those products, then the product can achieve the same structure, texture as well as physical appearance as their counterpart product.

The controversies which make people wonder is carrageenan safe or not. The reason is because there are several studies that claim this substance can cause inflammation in the human digestion system. However, after taking a closer look at those studies, the carrageenan substance that is claimed to cause inflammation on human digestion system is actually poligeenan which is a degraded carrageenan. This carrageenan type is different than the carrageenan type which consumed by food industry in their food which actually the undegraded carrageenan.

The poligeenan which is a degraded carrageenan is created by soaking the edible red seaweed using acid solution then extract the poligeenan from it. Meanwhile the undegraded carrageenan is created by soaking the edible red seaweed using alkaline procedure which makes more natural and healthier type of carrageenan.

Thus if you wonder is carrageenan product safe or not then you should know that there are two types of carrageenan in the market. One of the types is the poligeenan which is a degraded carrageenan that is also known to give potential risk and inflammation on human digestion system. Meanwhile the other type is the undegraded carrageenan which is more natural and healthier type of carrageenan that is also the type used by food industry to be consumed by human thus it is consider food grade type.

Furthermore, you actually do not need to wonder is carrageenan safe. Because of carrageenan molecular weight, it cannot be significantly absorbed or even metabolized inside your body. Thus when you consume food product that contains carrageenan, it will only flowing out from your GI tract as other fiber would then it will be excreted inside the feces.

It also does not have any effect in your nutrition absorption and does not have any toxic effect when consumed in 5% doses in your diet. But even if you consume it more than 5% doses in your diet, it will only give light effect such as diarrhea or soft stool that is a common effect as other non-digestible fibers.

Now that you already know those information, then you should not have to wonder is carrageenan safe or not anymore. As long as you consume the food grade type of carrageenan which is the undegraded carrageenan that is widely used by food industry, then you are still safe.