Popping Boba
Popping boba is a juice filled sphere with a thin gelled skin, made by spherification with sodium alginate and a calcium salt, and used as a beverage topping that ruptures and releases liquid when bitten.
The structure is a liquid core inside a calcium alginate membrane a fraction of a millimetre thick. Alginate is a linear polysaccharide extracted from brown seaweed, and its guluronic acid blocks bind divalent calcium ions to form an egg box junction, so a gel network sets wherever alginate solution meets calcium. Popping boba uses that reaction at a surface only: the sphere gels from the outside inwards and the process is stopped while the interior is still fluid. The core is a sweetened fruit juice or flavoured syrup, so the sphere carries both the flavour and the colour of the finished product.
Spheres are typically 5 to 8 millimetres across and ship floating in a light syrup in pails, jars, sachets or aseptic packs. Because the membrane is calcium dependent, the product is sensitive to sequestrants and to strongly acid or high phosphate environments, and prolonged heating continues the gelation inward and eventually converts the whole sphere to a firm gel with no burst, which is why pasteurisation is short and cooling is fast.
We source bulk Popping Boba from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Shanghai. A smaller requirement can ship in a combined container with other ingredients.
Please send the grade you need, the volume and your destination port, and we will come back with a solution and a price.
or call +86-21-6858 0751
- Function
- Bakery ingredient
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Uniform translucent coloured spheres with liquid centre, free from fused or collapsed beads |
| Sphere diameter | 5 to 8 mm, 90 percent within range |
| Burst behaviour | Membrane ruptures under light pressure, core remains liquid |
| Drained weight | Declared per pack, 50 percent of net weight minimum |
| Total soluble solids | 20 to 32 degrees Brix |
| pH | 3.4 to 4.2 |
| Leakage after 24 hours at 25 degrees Celsius | None, syrup remains clear |
| Lead | 0.3 mg/kg maximum |
| Arsenic | 0.5 mg/kg maximum |
| Total plate count | 1,000 cfu/g maximum |
| Yeast and mould | 50 cfu/g maximum |
| Coliforms | Less than 10 cfu/g |
| Escherichia coli | Negative in 1 g |
| Salmonella | Negative in 25 g |
Common Markets Grades
Flavour is the primary catalogue division, with mango, strawberry, passion fruit, lychee, blueberry, peach, kiwi, green apple and yoghurt among the standard lines, coloured either with fruit and vegetable concentrate or with a permitted colour. Sphere diameter is the second grading line, running from small 3 to 5 millimetre beads used in bottled drinks up to 7 to 9 millimetre spheres for cup service.
Beyond that, grades differ by juice content, from spheres flavoured with concentrate at low juice declaration to grades built on a substantial proportion of real juice, and by sugar level, with reduced sugar and polyol sweetened versions traded alongside standard syrup packs. Pack format covers foodservice pails, portioned retail sachets, aseptically filled ambient stable packs and frozen grades for manufacturers who intend to dose the spheres into a frozen product. Burst strength is specified explicitly on tighter grades, since a membrane that is too thick loses the effect and one that is too thin fails in transit.
Applications
- Bubble tea and milk tea, spooned into the cup as a topping that bursts against tapioca pearls
- Fruit tea and iced tea, where the sphere colour and flavour match the drink
- Frozen yoghurt and soft serve, dosed cold onto the surface at service
- Smoothies and blended drinks, added after blending so the spheres stay intact
- Shaved ice and dessert bowls, layered with jelly and fruit
- Ready to drink bottled beverages with visible particulates, filled through a wide bore piston filler
- Cocktails and mocktails, where the burst delivers a concentrated flavour hit
- Cake and pastry decoration, scattered on cream and mousse surfaces shortly before service
- Dairy desserts and pudding cups, folded in after the base has cooled
Brands Using Popping Boba
Widely-distributed consumer products that list Popping Boba on the ingredient label.
Brand names, product names and logos are the property of their owners. They appear here as published evidence that the ingredient is used, taken from the brand's own label or website. Their appearance is not an endorsement, and it does not mean the brand buys from us or from any manufacturer listed on this site.
China Manufacturers of Popping Boba
Top Popping Boba manufacturers in China.
Company names and logos are the property of the manufacturers themselves. They are listed here because our own directory records them as producing this ingredient. A listing is not an endorsement by them, and we do not represent them or speak on their behalf.
Regulatory Status
Popping boba is a composite food and carries no E number of its own, so the regulatory position is set by its ingredients and by the general hygiene frameworks, Regulation 852/2004 in the European Union and 21 CFR Part 117 in the United States. The gelling system is authorised in both markets. Sodium alginate is E401 in the European Union under Regulation 1333/2008 with purity criteria in Regulation 231/2012, and is generally recognised as safe in the United States at 21 CFR 184.1724. The calcium sources are likewise permitted, calcium chloride as E509 and at 21 CFR 184.1193, and calcium lactate as E327 and at 21 CFR 184.1207.
Fruit juice, sugar and acidulants are conventional food ingredients, with citric acid authorised as E330 and permitted in the United States as a generally recognised as safe multiple purpose additive. Colours must be checked individually against the destination market, since the permitted list and the labelling obligations differ, and fruit and vegetable concentrates used for colouring are treated as colouring foods in the European Union only where they meet the criteria in the guidance on that distinction. JECFA has evaluated alginic acid and its salts and Codex lists sodium alginate in the General Standard for Food Additives as a thickener, stabiliser and gelling agent. Where the pack is presented as a jelly confectionery rather than a beverage topping, the destination market rules on gelled confectionery pack formats have to be checked before shipping.
Manufacturing Process
Two solutions are prepared. The core solution is fruit juice or juice concentrate with sugar, acid, colour and flavour, adjusted to the target Brix and pH and, in the reverse spherification route, carrying a soluble calcium salt such as calcium lactate or calcium gluconate. The bath solution is sodium alginate dispersed in water and hydrated with shear until clear, then deaerated, because entrained air makes spheres float and gel unevenly. In the direct route the roles are reversed, with alginate in the core solution and calcium in the bath.
The core solution is metered through a multi nozzle dropping head into the bath, where each droplet gels on contact and forms a membrane as it falls and dwells. Residence time in the bath is the control variable that sets membrane thickness, and it is held to seconds. The spheres are lifted out on a screen belt, rinsed in clean water to stop further gelation and remove surface calcium or alginate, then graded over screens to remove undersize, oversize and fused spheres. Graded spheres are filled with a light syrup to a defined drained weight, the pack is closed and given a short pasteurisation, and it is cooled rapidly. Aseptic grades are pasteurised in line and filled cold into presterilised bags.
