About GMAP What is Gelatin?      - Overview      - Physical properties The importance of Gelatin      - As a food ingredient      - Pharmacy, health &        cosmetics      - Photography      - Technical gelatins How is Gelatin made? Gelatin: the natural choice Gelatin's tremendous benefits Unique Gelatin Recipes      - General tips      - Feature recipe Gelatin and BSE/TSE Gelatin and Foot & Mouth Disease GMAP members & contacts Back to Home		What is Gelatin? Gelatin has been a safe food source for hundreds of years, going back to the time of the pharaohs—a 4,000 year history. The earliest commercial manufacture of gelatin seems to have been in Holland in the mid 17th century. Not long after (around 1700) it also began in England. During the Napoleonic era, claims were made about the food value of gelatin. This possibly led to its manufacture in France in the late 18th century. It was first made in North America in 1808. Today, gelatin is made worldwide, in areas including Europe, North and South America, Asia, Asia Minor and Australasia. Gelatin is a unique and valuable protein. However, it does not occur in nature as gelatin. It begins as collagen. What is collagen? Collagen occurs extensively in nature. It is the most common fibrous protein found in the organic and physical structure of the vertebrates; that is, birds, reptiles, fish and mammals, including humans. Collagen is the basic structure of all the skin, tendon, bone, membrane and connective tissue in the bodies of these creatures. Collagen is thus the structural protein of the animal kingdom. It is to animals what cellulose is to plants. There are no plant sources of collagen, and as gelatin is derived from collagen, it follows that there are no plant source of gelatin either. Thus, there is no chemical relationship between gelatin and other materials often referred to as 'vegetable gelatins', such as seaweed extracts or gums like carrageen or guar. In its solid dry state, gelatin is a vitreous, brittle, solid material, faintly yellow to honey-like in colour, with about 10% moisture content. When ground to its commercial granular form, it is usually in particles the size of sand or sugar, with an almost indefinite shelf life when properly stored. Gelatin is a hydrocolloid (water-loving) material, high in amino acids, and can absorb up to ten times its weight in water. Gelatin is a pure, unique, nutritional protein providing many of the essential amino acids. It is not chemically modified, nor produced from genetically modified materials, and as such is entirely natural.