Gelatin is a multitalented ingredient for countless applications

Gelatin gives gummy bears their consistency and form, and yogurts their stability and creamy texture. Food applications are perhaps the best-known examples, but they’re certainly not the only ones for this incredibly useful collagenous protein. Most people also know that the capsules used to deliver drugs and nutraceutical supplements are made from pharmaceutical gelatin. But did you know that the coating for photographic films is made from gelatin, that ink-jet paper is coated with it and that even old and damaged books are restored with gelatin? Gelatin also plays a role in emergency medicine as a blood plasma expander, and in surgical procedures, hemostatic sponges are used to stop bleeding.