Vegan. Alginate (E401 to E404) is extracted from brown seaweed, so it is vegan. Sodium alginate thickens and gels foods and is the basis of spherification.
Alginate is seaweed turned into a gelling powder, the trick behind those little juice pearls. It is plant-based from the tide up.
Made fromBrown seaweed
E numbersE401 to E404
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Where it hides
Reformed and moulded foods
Spherification (juice pearls)
Ice cream and sauces
Vegan seafood and supplements
What it is
Alginate, or algin, is a gelling polysaccharide harvested from brown seaweeds and refined into sodium alginate and related salts.
Primary source 01 / 01
Alginic acid, also called algin, is a naturally occurring, edible polysaccharide found in brown algae.
Because it comes from seaweed, alginate is vegan. Sodium alginate is a favourite in modern cooking for spherification, the technique that turns a juice into pearls with a liquid centre, and it is widely used to bind and shape reformed foods, including vegan seafood.
Carrageenan (E407)Carrageenan is a thickener pulled from red seaweed. It has its critics on other grounds, but the vegan question is not one of them.
Agar (agar-agar, E406)Agar is the vegan answer to gelatin, a firm jelly set from seaweed. It has been doing this job in Asian kitchens for a very long time.
Konjac (glucomannan, E425)Konjac is a plant whose root fibre becomes shirataki noodles and wobbly jelly. Root to noodle, it is entirely plant-based.
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