Peel to Product: Sustainably Produced Pectin
GENU® Pectin is the ingredient that started it all for CP Kelco almost 75 years ago. It is upcycled from citrus peels, an abundant and sustainably sourced byproduct of the juice industry. We use as little fresh water as possible in processing. At our plant in Brazil, leftover materials from our production process are recovered and turned into beneficial side products, including d-limonene, fertigation (fertilizer + irrigation) for nearby crops, and molasses and feed for local farm animals.
Before it was commercially produced, pectin was used primarily for gelling homemade jams, but that’s just one of its many applications. Today, GENU® Pectin gives structure, texture and mouthfeel to products like spoonable and drinking yogurts, yogurt fruit prep, functional gummies, fruit-flavored beverages and acidified milk drinks.
Featured Pectin Applications
Fruit Applications
Confectionery
Beverages
Personal Care
Dairy Alternatives
Ready to formulate your next product innovation with pectin?
Exclusive Insights
With increasing demands for easily recognizable and sustainably sourced, clean label-friendly products, pectin is even more relevant today. Our pectin can be found in everything from functional gummies to jams and jellies, dairy products, plant-based alternatives and skincare.
What’s new?
In the growing functional gummies category, pectin can act as an animal-free alternative to gelatin. It provides a pleasing texture and taste, it is tolerant to calcium and minerals, and it enables sugar-free formulations. 
The other exciting benefit is that functional gummies made with pectin have better heat stability compared to gelatin, so heat waves and unrefrigerated transportation or storage will not have a harmful effect on product outcome. Since pectin can help gummies stand up to heat, they gain another advantage over gelatin: online sales possibilities.
As a plant-based ingredient, pectin has also great compatibility with plant-based yogurt alternatives. It helps to protect and stabilize protein, while adding creamy texture with a very pleasant mouthfeel. GENU® Pectin can act as a starch alternative in plant-based drinking and spoonable yogurt alternatives, helping to eliminate a step for potential cost savings and allow for one less ingredient on the label.
Pectin can also help formulators in the fast-growing plant-based burger alternatives segment by adding juiciness and providing a chewy, meat-like eating experience.
From fruit tree to fertilizer, join us for a fun and full-circle look at the making of GENU® Pectin. This behind-the-scenes video explores our patented peel process and waste diversion efforts in making pectin.
From thickening and gelling to stabilizing emulsions and foams, the special properties of pectin can be beneficial to solve a variety of personal care formulation challenges. For example, pectin is a preferred hydrocolloid for skin patches because of its ability to absorb moisture and provide wet adhesion. Pectin can enable formulation of non-wax sticks for color cosmetics containing water-soluble, active ingredients and it can be used to prepare water-in-silicone emulsions.
Instead of dissolving when added to water, some pectin grades swell to form soft particles with a high moisture content that can provide an extra emollient texture to skin creams. The viscosity of pectin solutions can also be utilized to help evenly distribute and provide spreadability of hair conditioners and hair styling products with a smooth and silky appearance. By protecting against water loss, pectin is a great humectant in creams and lotions, and keeps skin pleasantly moisturized.
Pectin protects skin’s acid mantle
Cleansers and soaps can increase skin’s pH levels and disturb the acid mantle, a very thin, slightly acidic surface layer that acts as a barricade to bad bacteria and pollutants. However, pectin can help you create skin care products that work with – not against – nature.
GENU® pHresh Pectin can help restore the skin to its natural pH when it is affected by endogenous or exogenous factors. It has a gentle buffering capacity that can be used in formulations to help neutralize the alkalinity and bring the pH back into desirable levels that can help preserve skin’s acid mantle. With its unique pH balancing attributes, GENU® pHresh Pectin helps support anti-irritation and soothing claims in skin care, tissues, scalp/hair care, shaving products and more.
Grades to suit your needs
Ask us about our ingredient grades to meet halal, kosher, COSMOS® Certified, vegan, non-GMO and organic-compliant product claims. Let us show you how formulating with pectin can be the best move for your skin care applications.
