Locust Bean Gum in Dog Food - Dog Nutrition DB

Locust bean gum in dog food is a thickener extracted from the seeds of carob trees. It is often used in combination with other gelling agents to improve the texture of wet dog food.

Contents

What is Locust Bean Gum?

Locust bean gum is a natural food additive that is derived from the seeds of the carob tree, also known as Ceratonia siliqua.

The carob tree is native to the Mediterranean and the Middle East. It belongs to the family of legumes and produces elongated pods with hard seeds that take a long time to ripen.

Locust Bean Gum in dog food Carob seed pods

Carob trees are also called St. John’s bread or locust trees. And carob seeds are commonly known as locust beans.

Locust bean gum is the ground endosperm of carob seeds.

The endosperm is the part of the seed that surrounds the embryo and provides nutrition mainly in the form of long chains of sugar units (polysaccharides) and some fat and protein.

For example, wheat flour is just the ground endosperm of wheat.

To obtain locust bean gum from carob endosperms the seeds are first de-husked by treating the kernels with acid or with thermal mechanical treatments. Then the seeds get separated from the germ and milled into a white to yellowish powder^[7].

Locust Bean Gum in dog food milled carob

Whole ground carob seeds (carob meal) are sometimes used to make chocolate-like dog treats. Unlike real chocolate, carob is completely safe for your dog to eat.

Why Is Locust Bean Gum in Dog Food?

Locust bean gum mainly consists of storage sugars found in carob seeds. It is a common additive in many foods.

Carob gum is mainly used as a thickener, stabilizer, and gelling agent and helps to create a firm and consistent texture in foods.

Since its purpose is technical, it’s not an ingredient but a food additive.

How does it work?

The group of polysaccharides in locust beans is called galactomannans because they consist of the simple sugars galactose and mannose^[6,7].

Specifically, locust bean gum consists of linear chains of mannose units with single galactose units attached along the sides.

Locust Bean Gum in dog food galactomannan

The mannose backbone is essentially insoluble in water. But the galactose side units can bind water molecules.

And this causes these molecules to swell up in water, it’s also called a carbohydrate hydrocolloid. The mannose-to-galactose ratio in different galactomannans influences how well they jellify^[1,6].

Locust bean gum can also improve the shelf life of products by binding water, improving freeze–thaw behavior of foods, or preventing foods from breaking down over time^[2].

There are other galactomannans from different plant species that can be used as natural gums. Noteworthy additives used in dog food are cassia gum, guar gum and fenugreek seeds^[5].

Locust bean gum has a mannose-to-galactose ratio of about 3-4:1 It is a little less soluble compared to guar gum which has a ratio of about 2:1^[6].

In fact, carob gum has the lowest galactose content among other galactomannan additives^[5]. On its own, it is not the most effective of gelling helpers.

Locust Bean Gum in dog food wet dog food tray

But there’s one trick:

When galactomannans are mixed with other gelling substances such as carrageenan, agar-agar, or xanthan gum it causes a synergistic effect that enhances the gelling strength of both substances^[2,7].

That’s why locust bean gum is together with other gums in canned dog food to achieve a chunky or “jellied” texture.

But overall, only very low amounts of gelling gums are needed for this, some human foods contain 0.1-2%^[2].

Is Locust Bean Gum Safe For Dogs?

According to US regulations locust bean gum is used as a stabilizer that is generally recognized as safe.

In the EU, locust bean gum (E 410) is an authorized food additive. It’s considered a thickener, stabilizer, gelling agent, or emulsifier.

Your dog can’t digest carob gum.

Instead, it is fermented by gut bacteria into sugars or short-chain fatty acids potentially giving it prebiotic properties. For this, locust bean gum in dog food is also a minor source of soluble fiber^[2,4,7].

So far, there is no reason to believe locust bean gum might be harmful, especially not in the low amounts used in dog food.

Locust Bean Gum in dog food food additive

But there is actually very limited research available on the long-term safety of locust bean gum in animal feed or dog food^[2,7].

Still, carob gum seems to be one of the safest natural gums with several authorities verifying its safety over the years^[2,7,8].

It has a low potential to cause hypersensitivity or allergies. It was safe in rodent studies. And it doesn’t appear to be contaminated with any harmful substance above legal limits^[2].

But keep in mind that the real strength of locust bean gum in wet dog food lies in increasing the effectiveness of other gelling agents, some of which might in turn be controversial ingredients.

However, gums are only used in very small quantities anyway. One reason for this is that (when fed in excess!) their gel-like nature is known to potentially impair the bioavailability of nutrients^[3].

Overall, we do not believe that locust bean gum in dog food is bad for dogs. However, it is still a food additive used mainly in highly processed products and is not beneficial either.

What is Locust Bean Gum?

Why Is Locust Bean Gum in Dog Food?

Is Locust Bean Gum Safe For Dogs?

Further Reading