What if texture came naturally?
19 Nov 2025 | Nexira
Consumers are demanding indulgent textures with cleaner labels and more natural ingredients—especially in dairy and plant-based alternatives. At Nexira, we believe texture can come naturally.
In this 30-minute webinar, our experts will explore how acacia gum and locust bean gum (LBG) provide innovative solutions for today’s dairy, frozen dessert, and plant-based formulations.
We will share the latest market insights from the US and Europe, highlighting the rise of plant-based products and the growing demand for ice cream that delivers both indulgence and a healthier profile.
Through exclusive concepts, we will demonstrate the unique functionality of our ingredients, including an ice cream where acacia gum naturally replaces the synthetic emulsifier E471. These case studies showcase how our natural solutions deliver stability, creaminess, and mouthfeel without compromising on clean label requirements.
Good morning, good afternoon, or perhaps good evening, depending on where today's listeners are tuning in from.
And welcome to today's webinar hosted by Food Ingredients First.
I'm Elizabeth Green, a senior journalist at CNS Media, which is also the publisher of The World of Food Ingredients.
Today, I am delighted to guide you through this webinar brought to you by Next era.
Now before we dive in, here are just a few quick housekeeping notes.
A Q&A session will follow today's presentation, providing listeners with the opportunity to explore key topics in more depth.
I'll be leading this Q&A session with our experts.
If we don't get to your question live, we'll be following up via email after the broadcast.
The webinar will also be on demand.
And on food ingredientsfirst.com in just a few days, so you can catch up on any details.
Consumers are demanding indulgent textures with cleaner labels and more natural ingredients, especially in dairy and plant-based alternatives.
In today's webinar titled What If Texture Came Naturally, Experts from Next era will explore how acacia gum and locust bean gum provides solutions for today's dairy, frozen desserts, and plant-based formulations.
The session will close with a live Q&A to address any formulation challenges you might have.
So please feel free to ask any questions in the Q&A engagement box, which you should now be able to see.
Let's introduce today's speakers.
First, we will hear from Jacinda Slagle, executive Account Manager for food at Next era.
Next, we will hear from Marie France Roth, Area Manager for Next era in Europe.
So with introductions complete, I will hand it over to Marie France.
Marie France, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Elizabeth.
So, yeah, let's get started and see how texture can truly come naturally.
So as a global leader in natural ingredients, Nexira combines over a century of expertise in acacia fiber, botanical extracts, and galactomanants such as LBG, guar gum, and tarra gum.
With our own manufacturing facilities and dedicated R&D centers, we ensure full control from raw material sourcing to innovation, and this for over 130 years.
We are present worldwide, being particularly strong in Europe and in the United States, which allows us to support customers worldwide with responsive and local service.
We are driven by our commitment to natural, clean label, functional and nutritional solutions.
Nextira stands as your trusted partner for developing the next generation of tasty and healthy formulations.
With our headquarters in France and 5 production units across France, Switzerland, and India, Nextera combines industrial know-how with scientific excellence through its dedicated R&D centers.
Our 8 subsidiaries ensure a global reach and local support with a strong presence in both Europe and in the US.
This international footprint allows our group to deliver a consistent quality, a reliable supply, and technical proximity to customers all around the world.
So let's have a look on today's agenda.
During the next 30 minutes, we will explore several topics.
The latest trends on markets inside shaping the dairy and plant-based applications.
Then how natural texturizers can help to create formulations, combining creaminess and clean label.
And we will illustrate all this with some inspiring formulation concepts from an ice cream reformulated without mono and diglycerides to a plant-based drink formulation enriched in dietary fibers.
We will wrap up with a short Q&A session with Bastien, our technical manager.
During our presentation again, feel free to drop your questions in the chat at any time.
So let's start and take a look at Consumer Insights presented by Jacinda.
Thanks Mary France.
When looking at the data, taste is still the leading criteria when choosing a food and beverage product.
However, texture plays a key role in delivering that sensory satisfaction.
Consumers are saying natural texturisers are perceived as better and more trustworthy compared to artificial ones.
At the end of the day, we know indulgence is inseparable from texture.
It's what makes every bite truly enjoyable.
The term natural and the perceived naturalness is at the heart of clean label.
When asked, what do you consider a clean label for food and beverage products, 42% of respondents answered, natural ingredients, making it the top response among consumers.
More than 30% of consumers say that using natural ingredients is the best way to make indulgent food and beverage categories healthier.
We can see an example of this trend illustrated by an ice cream product proudly claiming nothing artificial.
As we have seen, naturality is a key driver for consumers when it comes to food and beverages.
Consumers are increasingly looking for natural ingredients, not chemically synthesized ones.
In the next slides, we will take a closer look at our 100% plant-based portfolio and explore how it can be applied in concrete finished product concepts.
Our expertise is built around 3 complementary ingredient families.
Acacia gum.
It is definitely an all in one ingredient, combining technological properties and nutritional benefits while being clean label.
Natural texturizes to create a perfect sensory experience with a special focus today on LBT.
And botanical extracts to deliver nutritional and health benefits inspired by nature.
Although we won't cover this range in today's webinar, our botanical extracts portfolio helps to improve nutritional profiles and supports -being positioning.
We would be delighted to discuss these opportunities further outside of this session.
Our ingredients are used for many applications in dairy, frozen desserts, plant-based alternatives, beverages, bakery, confectionery.
But for this webinar today, we will focus on two applications dairy and frozen desserts first, and plant-based alternatives.
So now that we have introduced our key ingredient categories, let's explore how they can address real formulation challenges and inspire finished product concepts.
As we mentioned earlier, consumers are increasingly favoring transparent ingredient lists and prioritizing natural ingredients over chemically synthesized ingredients.
Mono and triglycerides are obtained by partial hydrolysis of vegetable fat and is commonly used as synthetic emulsifiers within the ice cream industry.
Demand to substitute them is growing worldwide.
At Nexera, we support both artisanal and industrial ice cream makers in meeting this demand.
In this section, we'll focus on the results of Nya's tests for replacing mono and diglycerides using acacia gum.
The challenge is twofold, ensuring the ingredient list remains as clean and natural as possible while maintaining the creamy indulgent texture that is essential for this market segment.
As mentioned, mono and triglycerides are used as an emulsifier, but can also affect the texture, shelf life, and the sensory profile of the finished product.
We'll work to replace them while maintaining these attributes and even possibly improving them.
One way to replace mono and dyes is by using our instant gum, Acacia gum, as we'll show you today.
After that, we'll see how locusveen gum can be used to ensure a smooth texture and create the perfect sensory experience.
After all, texture and enjoyment remain the number one criteria for consumers.
But first, as we're talking about natural, let's begin at the source of acacia in nature.
Here are some photos of Sub-Saharan Africa, where Acacia comes from.
Acacia is an exudate of the acacia tree, which is native to the sub-Saharan belt.
Once the sap exudates on the trees, the hard in acacia nodules are manually collected and shipped to our manufacturing facility in France.
So, here's an overview of the process to make acacia gum.
Once harvested, the acacia nodules make their way to our factories in France, where a purely mechanical minimal process preserves their natural quality.
Let's take a closer look at its key properties.
From texture enhancement to functional benefits, Acacia offers versatile solutions that can transform your formulations naturally.
As mentioned, it's truly an all in one ingredient.
Acacia brings together nutritional and technological benefits in a single versatile solution.
A acacia is sustainably sourced, available organic, and even carbon neutral.
It's gentle on digestion and FODMap-friendly certified.
With Acacia, you get performance, clean label, and sustainability all in one.
So let's get back to our test.
Only one factor was changed acacia gum instead and mono and glycerides.
No other modifications were made to the ingredients here.
Please let us know in the chat box survey if you would like to receive our complete application form.
A control was produced using a standard ice cream formulation containing 0.2% monoglycerides.
These tests showed that using our instant gum instead of mono and diglycerides did not affect the reality of the preparation before freezing and allowed a texture, a heat shock resistance, and melting kinetics similar to monodiglycerides.
No significant difference was found between the control and the trial with 0.4% of Instant gum AA in terms of reality and texture characteristics.
Melting profiles over time are very close as.
And our sensory evaluation also didn't show any significant difference between the control with synthetic emulsifier and the formulation made with Akeshon.
It is therefore possible to use acacia gum as a natural emulsifier to replace monodiglycerides in food formulations for a cleaner label.
Let's take a look here at a great success story from Cappo, a century-old institution from Belgium, ice cream maker with around 30 stores across the country.
In their quest for a cleaner label without compromising indulgence, Capu chose to replace mono and glycerides with acacia gum in their cap mix.
The result was a stable, creamy texture and a formulation that is more natural and transparent, with no loss of indulgence.
Cappo's team was delighted with both technical performance and alignment with their brand values.
You will soon be able to discover more about this collaboration in an upcoming article on our website.
We have seen the effectiveness of acacia gum as a natural emulsifier.
So now, let's focus on one of the most critical aspects of ice cream, the texture.
Achieving the perfect criminal feel is key for consumer satisfaction, and this is where locust bing gum plays a major role.
LBG is a natural versatile ingredient that will help to create a smooth, a stable, and an indulgent ice cream texture.
In the next section, we will explore how LBG works in the ice cream matrix.
So, you're probably already familiar with locus wing gum or LBG.
What makes our LVG stand out is it's sustainably sourced, 100% plant-based and goes through a full mechanical process with no chemicals used, natural, clean, and reliable.
It brings excellent thickening and stabilizing properties, making it versatile for dairy, frozen desserts, and plant-based products.
Here's an overview of how our locust fin gum is made.
Once picked from the carob trees, the carob seeds are separated from the pods and using the endosperm of the seed, we produce locust fin gum.
At Nixera, we use a unique roasting process, so a purely physical and natural process using no chemicals.
Here's an overview of our various references.
We have standard grades with different viscosities and premium grades.
Our 2 different grades of premium LBG offer advanced functionalities.
Our Native Premium LS ensures a very white color without specks.
And the Native Premium FV for faster viscosity offers the highest viscosity at lower temperatures, which is unique compared to standard locust fing gum on the market.
We can guide you in choosing the perfect reference for your project, feel free to reach out in the chat box.
Now let's look at some benefits in ice cream when using LBG as a texturizer.
As we can see here, this illustration shows how locust gum allows us to control the size of the ice crystals by forming a network which acts as a barrier around them.
This inhibits ice crystal growth.
The reduction of ice crystal formation helps to maintain a smooth texture during freezing.
LBG also allows a smooth meltdown and improves the mouthfeel during consumption.
This graph shows that the addition of locusmine gum helps to provide a very creamy texture even after a bit of melting, thanks to the viscosity increase.
The mechanisms of locustine gum that improve texture and mouthfeel will also improve the flavor release, which adds to the eating experience of the consumer.
In addition, locus fam adds convenience in processing, transportation, and ultimately consumer eating experience as it improves the resistance to heat shock.
For example, removing the ice cream from the freezer to serve it and then putting it back in the freezer after some time.
And lastly, it is perfectly suitable for plant-based ice creams.
To illustrate and summarize all of these benefits, here is our first concept, ice cream without artificial additives.
As we've seen, the properties of acacia gum, a natural plant-based ingredient with powerful emulsifying properties, as as our locuspene gum with superior texturizing properties.
Feel free to ask any questions you may have in the chat box and we'll answer them with Bastian in a few minutes.
And now, Mary France will begin on our 2nd example where our natural plant-based ingredients will make all the difference.
For this next example, we have chosen an almond milk drink that we want to be both indulgent and healthy.
Using locust bean gum will definitely improve the creaminess of the recipe, but as we have seen, it's no longer enough to be delicious.
Nutritional profile of the finished product must also make a difference.
That's why we have worked on a recipe enriched with acacia fiber.
Here, LBG helps to control synesis to make sure that you won't get any watery texture.
But also allows a coating effect in the mouth.
We can also guide you as you can use LBG in synergy with other texturizers.
Lacus bean gum can also be used in low sugar or no sugar drinks to improve nutritional profile of the recipe.
These natural texturizes restore the mouthfeel.
If the nutritional profile of your products is your main focus today, feel free to reach out, we will be happy to help.
Now let's see how we can easily and effectively improve the nutritional profile of the recipe using our Acacia fiber.
As we saw earlier, acacia gum has many technological properties.
This natural ingredient also has multiple nutritional benefits due to its fiber content.
Nexira has specifically developed two ranges of acacia fiber.
Innovea, which is the organic and carbon neutral range, and fiber gum, which is the conventional range.
Acacia fiber is stable and resistant to high temperatures and acidic conditions, perfect for various applications and processing parameters.
This means the fiber content will remain stable throughout processing and shelf life.
Plus, Acacia is really easy to use.
It's in powder form, it's 100% water soluble, and it has no taste or smell.
What's great about our acacia fiber is it has very low viscosity, as you can see on the graph here.
So you can use it in higher doses, such as for fiber enrichment or even just for improved mouth fuel without making your product too viscous.
To sum it all up, we have our technological and nutritional benefits we've added to the recipe to create a tasty and healthy plant-based drink using both locustine gum and acacia fiber.
Let us know if you have any questions about this concept or something similar that you'd like to work on.
To finalize, here is one last example where LBG is a must-have ingredient.
Adding locust bean gum to a cream cheese formulation will definitely improve spreadability.
We have many other examples available.
As we had to select a few for this webinar, don't hesitate to contact us for your next tasty and healthy formulations.
To conclude, and before moving on to questions and answers with Bastian, here is a brief summary of our presentation.
Firstly, 100% of our ingredients are plant-based, and to be completely consistent, our processes are mechanical only.
We do not use chemical process.
As we have seen today, the perfect texture, which is key for consumers today can be created with natural ingredients.
We can guide you to the most relevant ingredients that will fit your project to make sure your future formulations are perfect.
So now it's time for questions with Bastian, our technical manager.
Thank you to both Jacinda and Marie France for your presentations.
This is Elizabeth Green once again from Food Ingredients First joining for the Q&A session with our listeners and speakers.
We also welcome Bastian Bastian Barapion, who will be joining us for today's Q&A session, who is a technical support manager for the food division at Next era.
Bastian provides global technical support across Europe, the US, the Middle East, Asia, and beyond.
So with that, let's begin our Q&A.
Some great questions have already been submitted by our audience, so thank you in advance.
So Bastian, I'll come to you first.
What are the typical usage levels for LLBG and Acacia gum in dairy or plant-based drinks?
In dairy, so LBG can generally be used with dosage from 0.05 to 0.2%, mainly to bring some mouth feeling and body to the to the beverage, but also.
To better stabilize the protein and limit the sedimentation.
Regarding acacia, it will be slightly higher dosage.
It's usually from 0.5% for natural emulsifying properties, but you can also achieve a high fiber intake with a minimum dosage at 3.5%.
And depending on the country, you could have some nutritional claim.
In your final formulation, in addition, even you are using Acacia for fiber enrichment, you will keep all the, technical benefits of the Acacia, so Marsfield, body, some immunifying properties also.
OK, thank you very much, very interesting.
OK, moving on to our next question now from the audience, which is, I currently work on reduced fat ice cream ice cream formulations.
Can LBG help for this?
Bastian, I'll come back to you for this answer, if that's OK.
So LBG is interesting to consider in your formulation for with the low fat content, because it will help to compensate for the lack of roundness and the creaminess in your recipe, and LBG will help to mimic and improve the mouthfeel, and to mimic the mouthfeel of the of the fat and improve the mouthfeel of your recipe.
OK, perfect.
Thank you very much.
OK, we have another question now from a listener, which is, you highlighted the usage of AG in replacement of mono and diglycerides.
What is the dosage in ice cream?
So using acacia to replace monglyceride in ice cream is more and more requested.
It's really a growing trend in the food industry for a clean label or to achieve a cleaner labeling while maintaining always a good texture and overrun in the ice cream.
The typical dosage that could be used is between 0.3 to 0.5% of the final mix, and, it.
It will really give the same texture as amy triglycerides at the end.
As you have seen during the presentation, we made some trials in our R&D lab and we are ready to share with you our recipe and result.
Perfect, thank you very much.
We have a lot more questions coming in from our audience, so please keep them coming.
Our next question is, do you have a cream cheese recipe with your ingredients?
Bastian, I'll come back to you.
So yes, so in cream cheese application using galactomannan is a traditional usage for texturizing and naturally texturizing and stabilizing the recipe and especially locusmam, which is highly used in such type of recipe.
The usual dosage is 0.2.4% of the final product to ensure the good mixture but also really to have a unique spreadability of the cream cheese and controlling the synesis inside the product.
So our R&D team has developed many application nuts that we are totally ready to, to share as I mentioned previously for ice cream, but also we have for cream cheese, so feel free to contact us if you want to have any recommendation of recipes with our ingredients.
Fantastic, thank you very much.
OK, our next question from a listener is, how would you suggest incorporating acacia gum into bakery applications?
Marie France, maybe you'd like to answer this question.
Acacia gum will be used indeed for various applications for bakery items.
Also it can be used.
Actually, it depends on the formulation and the objective.
Most of the time it will be used as a moisture regulator, but also for fiber enrichment.
OK, thank you very much.
OK, moving on to our next question, er, do you offer organic ingredients?
Marie France, I'll come back to you for that question.
And the answer is yes.
Actually, indeed we do have organic references for Acacia gum, and also for LBG.
I may open also that, I, I may also open the fact that besides, organic certifications, Nexera has also worked on, social and environmental responsibility.
Perfect, thank you very much.
OK, we have another question here, which is, is LBG indicated to use in UHT dairy cream with reduced fat content?
Interesting question.
Bastian or Marie France?
Would either of you like to take that?
You can go on if you want.
So, so LBG it's totally suitable for a UHT process as it's extremely stable to temperature and it will be totally suitable for UHT process or pasteurization process to to reach the right texture at the end.
And the heat treatment will will not impact the final functionality in the finished process.
OK, fantastic, thank you very much.
Next we have a listener who says they are a producer of fruit fillings.
They would like to know, Marie France, if they can use LBG for this type of application.
For fruit fillings.
Yes, yes, yes, actually, indeed, we have many cases of fillings for yogurt, bakery snacks, also fruit preparations.
Using LBG for that will definitely bring a pleasant texture, but also yosis control to avoid water release.
So for that we also have a full range of natural texturizers that can be applicable, for instance, guar gum as.
OK, fantastic.
Very interesting.
Our next question now from a listener is, is Acacia gum suitable for E471 replacement in high overrun ice cream?
And in brackets it says 120% overrun.
Bastian, maybe you'd like to share your insights on this.
Yes, of course.
So, as we, as we mentioned previously, we, we made the trials in our AMD lab to replace E471, so mon glycerides, and the cache is totally suitable now it's.
Really depending on the recipe, the dosage of acacia, and the type of acacia, we don't have only one reference.
We have a full range of acacia with different efficiency in receiving properties that can be used to replace E471.
So, depending on the recipe, we can select one or another one and I would suggest to discuss directly about your recipe and select the right reference regarding your your.
Your your formulation.
OK, fantastic, thank you very much.
Another question now for you, Bastian, which is, are there any synergies or incompatibilities between LBG and other ingredients?
That's very interesting.
Bastian, back to you.
Yeah, so LBG is really interesting for the food industry because there is no incompatibility with other ingredients.
Regarding synergies, it's a product which is really interesting because it makes synergies with other hydrochlorides that allowed to achieve at the end really a unique texture.
For example, if we take xantan gum and agarraga.
Lux Bingham will make some gel synergies that allow to have a unique texture at the end like melting gel or creamy texture that allow to really make a more pleasant finished product for the consumers.
Fantastic, thank you very much.
OK, so I think we have time for maybe 1 or 2, possibly 3 more questions now.
Marie France, I'll come to you next for this, for this following question, which is, are there any sensory impacts, such as color, taste, and smell when using your products?
What can you tell us about that?
I'm not sure if the question is related to a kea gum or LBG, but, in any case, for both products, the dosage level usually formulations are very low, so there is no specific impact on taste or smell in the formulations.
However, talking about sensory impact on the other hand is, as we described before, it will have impact on texture, creaminess, and roundness.
Fantastic, thank you very much.
OK, Bastian, another question for you, you're a very popular man.
When we develop a new formulation, how might we select the right reference of LBG?
I think you can first focus on physicochemical parameters, and for LBG there are 3 main parameters to consider.
The first one is the color of the powder and the spec content.
Second one will be the viscosity, which is quite important because it will impact the texture of your finished product.
And the last one is the synergies we discussed a bit previously.
Locus Bingam is able to make some synergies with other hydrocoides that will really customize the texture of your finished product.
So this is difficult to tell you really in detail how to select the LBG.
It will really depend on your recipe.
So again, don't hesitate to contact us, discuss your formulation, and we will be able to suggest you the right LBG reference to use for your formulation to achieve the right result at the end.
Perfect, thank you very much to both Bastian and Marie France for all of your answers.
Now that's about all we have time for today, all we have time for today.
Thank you to everyone involved in today's webinar from Next era, both behind the scenes and on the ground.
Before we sign off, I'd like to remind you that any.
Questions we didn't have time to answer today will be answered via email.
Furthermore, you can keep up with the latest developments in industry news at food ingredientsfirst.com, where you can also sign up for our newsletters.
Thanks again for joining Bastian and Marie France.
If you have anything further to add, over to you.
Maybe one last word or so.
Next year we'll have a booth at Full Ingredient Europe in Paris this December.
So of course, if some of you are attending, we will be happy to meet you in person.
Same looking forward to see you at the FAE and discuss your recipes.
OK, thank you both very much.
Ph.D. -Technical Support Manager, Nexira
Senior Journalist, CNS Media B.V.
Executive Account Manager - Food, Nexira
Bastien Berepion
Ph.D. -Technical Support Manager, Nexira
Elizabeth Green
Senior Journalist, CNS Media B.V.
Jacinda Slagle
Executive Account Manager - Food, Nexira
Marie-France Roth
Area Manager - Food, Nexira
Marie-France Roth
Area Manager - Food, Nexira
Bastien Berepion
Ph.D. -Technical Support Manager, Nexira
Elizabeth Green
Senior Journalist, CNS Media B.V.
Jacinda Slagle
Executive Account Manager - Food, Nexira
Marie-France Roth
Area Manager - Food, Nexira
