HiSiaddi is an innovative foreign trade service provider driven by dual engines of technology commercialization and international trade. It has established a "1+2+3+4=1" service system and can supply gellan gum from multiple well-known original manufacturers. As a technology-driven foreign trade enterprise, HiSiaddi has repeatedly resolved customized gellan gum product demands for clients through technology transformation cooperation with factories and precise market demand insights. Below is a case of customized gellan gum solutions delivered by HiSiaddi.
Please contact HiSiaddi customer service if you need more customized services.
The buyer is Lacta Premium S.A., a leading mid-to-high-end dairy enterprise on the Iberian Peninsula. It specializes in shelf-stable low-sugar plant yogurts supplied to European supermarkets, easy-to-swallow soft curds for the elderly, and fruit-suspended lactic acid drinks. Its products are sold in premium premium lines of Mercadona (Spain) and Continente chain supermarkets (Portugal). All ingredients comply with EU E418 gellan gum regulations, FCC, LFGB, clean label and Kosher access standards, with an annual total colloid procurement volume of 195 tons. The company previously purchased standard off-the-shelf gellan gum from CP Kelco (USA) for a long time. Amid raw material price hikes across Europe and America in 2025 and global giants’ refusal to accept small-batch formula customization, the client planned to develop exclusive customized compound gellan gum in China, entrusting HiSiaddi to fully deliver the whole process including formula customization, factory production launch and trial & mass production.
Three rigid customization requirements from the client, which cannot be met by generic standard gellan gum on the market:
1. Customized gel texture: Self-developed low-sugar oat-based shelf-stable yogurt requires the compounded gellan gum to form soft, flexible gel without hard cores, with no water separation or layering after 6 months at room temperature. Conventional single high-acyl or low-acyl gellan gum either forms overly brittle gel prone to cracking or overly thin colloid leading to failed suspension. Pure high-acyl gellan gum tends to melt and separate under heat, while low-acyl gellan gum delivers overly firm texture unsuitable for the palatability of curds for the elderly.
2. Customized dosage & clean label: New EU clean label regulations permit only "gellan gum" to be listed as a single raw material on ingredient lists, prohibiting compounding with auxiliary colloids such as xanthan gum, guar gum and citrate. Conventional compound stabilizers contain auxiliary colloids and fail to meet labeling regulations. It is necessary to adjust acyl content via fermentation without adding extra additives.
3. Customized physical powder indicators: Ultra-fine particle size over 800 mesh with excellent cold water pre-dispersibility. The client’s automated production line has no pre-dissolution section. Ordinary gellan gum agglomerates when encountering cold water and dissolves incompletely, generating tiny colloidal particle impurities in drinks and damaging finished filling quality.
4. Multi-scenario universal formula: One customized gellan gum applicable to three product lines simultaneously – curd shaping, fruit suspension and shelf-stable dairy drink stabilization, distinguishing it from single-purpose standard models available on the market.
The client previously contacted three major domestic gellan gum manufacturers, who only promoted their standardized mass-produced models and could only slightly blend auxiliary additives based on existing finished products, refusing to adjust fermentation processes and deacylation parameters for in-depth customization. Three rounds of customized sample tests all failed, and pilot production on the production line encountered persistent problems including yogurt water separation, fruit sedimentation and filling pipe blockage, delaying the new product launch plan for 3 months. Upon recommendation by the Spanish Food Ingredients Association, the client entrusted HiSiaddi to coordinate the full customization chain.
HiSiaddi set up a team consisting of colloid formula engineers, production process specialists and EU compliance specialists. Combined with the terminal formula pH of the client (3.8~4.3 acidic dairy environment), UHT sterilization at 135°C high temperature and filling cooling curve, the core customization direction was confirmed: in-situ fermented compound gellan gum with mixed high and low acyl groups. Instead of blending extra colloids in post-production, gel flexibility and efficient suspension performance are balanced by regulating deacylation processes to control acetyl and glyceryl acyl content. HiSiaddi collaborated with a leading domestic gellan gum fermentation factory to deliver customized products in four stages.
Conventional high-acyl gellan gum has acetyl content ≥2.6%, while low-acyl gellan gum has acetyl content ≤0.3%. Combined with the client’s texture requirements, HiSiaddi worked with the factory to upgrade fermentation post-alkali removal processes and develop intermediate modified gellan gum with acetyl at 1.15% and glyceryl acyl at 0.42%. Falling between high and low acyl variants, it retains the flexible, low-temperature non-hardening characteristics of high-acyl gellan gum while possessing the acid-resistant, high-temperature-resistant and fruit-suspending capacity of low-acyl gellan gum. A ultra-low addition dosage of 0.022% can complete yogurt shaping, far lower than the starting dosage of 0.035% for generic commercial gellan gum, matching the protein stability requirements of low-sugar formulas. No post-blending of xanthan gum or sodium citrate is required, enabling a single gellan gum ingredient to fully comply with EU clean label labeling standard E418 with a clean ingredient list free of redundant additives.
The client adopts automated dry feeding. Customized 850-mesh ultra-fine powder produced via airflow crushing differs from generic 100~200 mesh coarse powder sold on the market. The spray drying discharge process was optimized, and powder was modified for hydrophobic dispersion to disperse completely under high-speed stirring in cold water without agglomeration. The pre-dissolution section of the client’s production line can be eliminated, matching the original automated equipment and fundamentally resolving filling pipe blockage and tiny white particle impurities in finished drinks.
Internal control indicators customized to meet FCC and EU food additive standards: heavy metal lead <0.2ppm, arsenic <0.1ppm; Salmonella and Coliform undetected; ignition residue ≤4.5%. Generic domestic gellan gum generally has ignition residue ranging from 6% to 8%. HiSiaddi coordinated the factory to optimize purification sections and reduce fermentation residue. All test items of finished products meet Spanish food safety entry inspection standards, with bilingual COA test reports provided upon delivery.
Small-scale trials were conducted separately for the three product lines:
1. Shelf-stable oat yogurt: Addition dosage 0.021%, no layering or water separation after 6 months under both refrigerated and room-temperature storage post UHT treatment; soft and scoopable curd without brittle fracture.
2. Large-fruit grain lactic acid drinks: Addition dosage 0.019%, 10mm fruit grains remain suspended without sedimentation for 6 months with smooth drink fluidity.
3. Easy-to-swallow curds for the elderly: Addition dosage 0.025%, ultra-soft texture melting instantly in the mouth, meeting food standards for people with swallowing disorders.
HiSiaddi followed a three-stage sample delivery schedule: 500g lab samples → 25kg pilot samples → 500kg mass trial production, shipping three batches to the client’s R&D center in Spain:
1. First round lab samples: Adjusted deviations in acyl content to fix overly firm gel issues.
2. 25kg pilot batch: Small-batch factory production to verify powder mesh size and batch stability. The client carried out small-batch feeding to produce 10,000 bottles of yogurt, with all sensory and stability indicators qualified.
3. Full 500kg trial production batch: Full-scale pilot run across all three new product production lines at the client’s plant, fully clearing the way for new products to complete local Spanish food safety filing.
The three rounds of sampling took 38 days and completely resolved all production defects caused by generic gellan gum used previously. The client formally signed a 195-ton annual customized procurement framework, with monthly delivery split into 11 batches. Customized gellan gum for each batch is produced on exclusive dedicated production lines at the cooperative factory without mixing with generic grades to guarantee consistent indicators across batches.
HiSiaddi provided full-chain supporting compliance services simultaneously:
1. Handling EU substance filing for E418, third-party LFGB testing, Kosher certification, and bilingual Spanish-English SDS complying with CLP/GHS regulations.
2. Custom export packaging: 25kg food-grade inner bags with kraft paper outer bags, labels printed in Spanish and English marking E418, CAS number, customized model and factory filing number to meet Spanish customs import inspection specifications. The first 22-ton container of customized gellan gum was shipped from Shanghai Port to Barcelona Port and cleared customs in one go without inspection detention.
In the year following cooperation, the client launched a new infant complementary food curd product line in Spain and placed an additional 72-ton customized gellan gum order. The client also entrusted HiSiaddi with full procurement of customized Chinese raw materials for all hydrophilic colloids including pectin and xanthan gum.
1. The exclusive customized formula replaced imported Kelco original gellan gum, cutting overall procurement costs by 31% and breaking supply chain drawbacks including monopolized pricing and refusal of customization by global giants.
2. New products passed EU clean label audits relying on customized clean-label gellan gum, ranking among Spain’s top-selling premium yogurts for six consecutive months after launch, with new product revenue rising 28% year-on-year by 28%.
3. No equipment renovation investment was required for pre-dissolution support, as the original production line directly adapted to feeding. Production efficiency of a single line increased by 17%, saving approximately 13,000 Euros in equipment modification costs.
High-end customized orders supported technical upgrades in fermentation deacylation and ultra-fine crushing, breaking low-end price competition limited to generic mass-produced gellan gum. Leveraging this benchmark Spanish client case, the factory subsequently secured customized orders from three other high-end European dairy enterprises in Italy and Greece. Export volume of high-end customized gellan gum accounts for over 35% of the factory’s total shipments, with a 22% premium over generic grades.
Breaking the traditional spot-only trading model, HiSiaddi built service barriers covering client demand deconstruction, factory fermentation process customization, multi-stage sample delivery and full supporting compliance documents. Relying on the successful Spanish case, HiSiaddi subsequently secured customized colloid cooperation with four mid-to-high-end European food groups in France and Finland, specializing in the niche track of EU clean-label hydrophilic colloid customization.
Most domestic gellan gum manufacturers focus on mass production of standardized generic grades with fixed production lines and fermentation processes. To control production costs, they refuse to adjust fermentation acyl, purification and crushing processes for in-depth customization for overseas clients. In contrast, mid-to-high-end European and American food brands face constraints from clean label regulations, national food safety standards and exclusive proprietary formulas, making standard generic raw materials difficult to match special product requirements. Independent communication with factories easily leads to customization deadlocks and wasted sample batches.
As a neutral third-party foreign trade service provider with professional colloid technical reserves, HiSiaddi connects terminal downstream formulation requirements with upstream factory process modification for customization. Instead of compromising formulations via post-blending auxiliary additives, raw material customization is realized at the source fermentation stage. This meets differentiated product demands of high-end overseas clients while helping domestic colloid manufacturers shift to high-value customized tracks, serving as a typical implementation case of food additive foreign trade evolving from spot commodity trading to integrated technology customization + trade services.
Please contact HiSiaddi customer service if you need more customized service support.
+86-13120989737 
info@hisiaddi.com 
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