Aluminium Silicate - in truffles?!

[Mabelcat]

Why would Aluminium Silicate be an ingredient in chocolate truffles - surely this is found in anti-perspirants?

[gen2]

Aluminium silicate is an anti-caking agent and would probably have been used to allow the free flowing of the dry milk powder used in the manufacture of the truffles.

The full uses of aluminium silicate can be found here:

http://www.codexalimentarius.net/gsfaonline/ad ditives/details.html?id=294

[Mabelcat]

Thanks for a great answer. Much appreciated.

[theprof]

Yes, gen2 is right. Aluminium Silicate is an "E" number food additive. In this case, it's probably in the form of kaolin, E559, although other types of aluminium silicates exist and are used in food products - Bentonite is another. Kaolin and its relatives are naturally occuring minerals with no known adverse effects in the human body and they are used for their Anti-Caking properties.

Anti-Caking agents are added to many food products to enable them to flow smoothly in controlled environments and they hinder hygroscopic properties of some substances. Table salt, for example, is slightly hygroscopic and will absorb water from the air, causing it to cake on the surface. In this case, Magnesium Carbonate is one of the Anti-Caking agents used in table salt and it's almost impossible to buy the stuff without added Magnesium Carbonate.

As gen2 suggested, the Aluminium Silicate is most likely to have been used in one of the ingredients of the truffles during processing, and not added to the truffle per se during manufacture. E559 also has another use though - it acts as a reservoir for aromas and flavours put into a product, which helps increase the shelf-life of the product concerned .

Food legislation now often calls for the declaration of "ingredients in ingredients" due to intensive manufacturing methods. There's also a requirement to declare this information due to possible allergies to an ingredient that you may never imagine to be in the finished product. It can be overwhelming at times.

Incidentally, it's usually Aluminium Chloride that's included in anti-perspirants.

[Mabelcat]

Ah yes it's Aluminium Chloride in roll-ons...thanks for that.