1. Pretreatment

First of all, the fat and minerals are removed from the raw materials. Afterwards two different pre-treatment methods are used, depending on the raw material and on the final application of the gelatine.

Alkaline Procedure
The connective tissue of cattle is highly interconnected and is therefore pre-treated with lime in a process lasting several weeks. This brings about a gentle change to the collagen structure. After this treatment, the collagen is soluble in warm water and can thus be separated from the rest of the raw material.

Acid Procedure
The collagen connective tissue from pigskin is not so heavily interconnected. Here, a one-day acid treatment with subsequent neutralisation and the intensive rinsing out of the salts is sufficient to extract the collagen.

2. Extraction

The pre-treated raw materials are now treated with hot drinking water and extracted in several stages. The temperature of the hot water is a parameter for the jelly strength: the lower the temperature of the water, the higher the jelly strength (Bloom value) of the extracted gelatine.

3. Cleaning

The extracted solutions are freed of traces of fat and fine fibres in high-performance separators. Even the finest impurities are removed by filtration, in a similar way to the beverages industry. In a last purification stage the gelatine is freed of calcium, sodium, residual acid and other salts.

4. Thickening

The gelatine solution is now concentrated in vacuum evaporators and thickened to form a honey-like solution.

5. Drying

The highly concentrated gelatine solutions are sterilised, cooled, set and dried under strict hygienic conditions. In this process, “gel noodles” are formed that are ground into grains.

The quality and purity of the gelatine is ensured by detailed quality control.
All of these steps are indispensable for gelatine manufacture and have been used for decades to manufacture high-quality gelatine.