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These chemicals are large, highly flexible molecules which curl around each other forming double-helical structures. This gives them the ability to form a variety of different gels at room temperature. They are widely used in the food and other industries as thickening and stabilising agents. A particular advantage is that they are thixotropic—they thin under shear stress and recover their viscosity once the stress is removed. This means that they are easy to pump but stiffen again afterwards.

For example, they can be used in:

• Desserts, ice cream, milk shakes, sauces - gel to increase viscosity
• Pates and processed meat - Substitute fat to increase water retention and increase volume
• ToothpasteToothpaste is a paste used, almost always in conjunction with a toothbrush, to clean teeth. The earliest known reference to a toothpaste is in a manuscript from Egypt in the 4th century A. which prescribes a mixture of powdered salt, pepper, mint leaves, - stabilizer to prevent constituents separating
• Fire fighting foam - thickener to cause foam to become sticky
• ShampooA shampoo is a traditional Indian and Persian body massage given after pouring warm water over the body and rubbing it with extracts from herbs. It can be used in conjunction with a conditioner for optimal results, but it is not a necessity. Since the ear and cosmetic creams - thickener
• Air freshener gels
• Shoe polish - gel to increase viscosity

There are three classifications of carrageenan:

• Kappa - strong, rigid gels. Produced from Eucheuma cottonii
• Iota - soft gels. Produced from Eucheuma spinosum
• Lambda - form gels when mixed with proteinmyoglobin, showing coloured alpha helices. This protein was the first to have its structure solved by X-ray crystallography by Max Perutz and Sir John Cowdery Kendrew in 1958, which led to them receiving a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. A protein is a complex,s rather than water, used to thicken dairy products. The most common source is Gigartina from Southern Europe.

All are soluble in hot water, but in cold water only the Lambda form (and the sodium salts of the other two) are soluble.

When used in food products, carrageenan has the EUFor other uses, see EU (disambiguation). The European Union or EU is a supranational organisation of 25 European states. It was established with that name by the Treaty on European Union (commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty) in 1992 but many aspects o additive E-number E407. Although introduced on an industrial scale in the 1930s, the first use was in ChinaThis article is on the geographic and cultural entity. For other meanings, see China (disambiguation). China ( Traditional Chinese: , Simplified Chinese: , Hanyu Pinyin: Zhongguo, Wade-Giles: Chung-kuo) is a country in continental East Asia with some oute around 600 BC (where Gigartina was used) and in IrelandThe island of Ireland ire in Irish, Airlann in Ulster Scots) is the third-largest island in Europe. It lies on the west side of the Irish Sea, close to the island of Great Britain. It is composed of the Republic of Ireland in the south and Northern Irelan around 400 AD. There is evidence from animal studies which indicates that degraded carrageenan might cause ulcerations in the gastro-intestinal tract and gastro-intestinal cancer. Chemical studies indicate that degraded carrageenan can easily be produced from undegraded carrageenan.

The largest producer is the Philippines, where cultivated seaweed produces about 80% of the World supply. The most commonly used are Cottini (Eucheuma cottonii) and Spinosum (Eucheuma spinosum), which together provide about three quarters of the World production. These grow at sea level down to about 2 metres. The seaweed is normally grown on nylon lines strung between bamboo floats and harvested after three months or so when each plant weighs around 1 kg.