Definitions for "Hydrocolloids"
A generic term for natural or synthetic polymers that dissolve or swell in water to form colloidal solutions.
Hydrocolloids describe certain chemicals (mostly polysaccharides and proteins) that are colloidally dispersible in water. Thus becoming effectively "soluble" they change the rheology of water by raising the viscosity and/or inducing gelation. They may provide other interactive effects with other chemicals, in some cases synergistic, in others antagonistic.