From manual to automatic – the story of an industry
Long before the word “gelatin” derived its name from the Latin word “gelatus” which means “to freeze”, our Ancient Egyptian ancestors had already figured out the value of using the jelly-like material produced by cooking animals.
Ancient Egyptians extracted a primitive form of gelatin by boiling animals’ skins and bones to make collagen and glue to use in their daily lives. They used the glue to stick together clothes and furniture. Ancient Egyptians also cooked up the bone-based broths and ate the cooled-down extractions coming out of the boiling process – which was probably the first-time gelatin was ever produced and used as a food product.
Traces of gelatin were found in a pharaoh grave in the form of glue.
This was the first time in history to produce gelatin manually.
It was in the 1930s in Egypt that the Amin Abdel Hamid started what would become today one of the leading gelatin manufacturing businesses in the region. He owned a manual gelatin factory in the tanneries area of Old Cairo and assembled the raw material from the skins of cattle slaughtered in the nearby slaughter houses. He used the skins of cows and buffaloes to manually produce gelatin which was made into glue and sold to furniture makers and carpentry shops. His gelatin product was very well known for its quality. At that time, and due to the laborious manual process, he continued to supply the nearby shops and carpenters with his product, which was later to become El Amin Gelatin, a well-known product in the local Egyptian as well as the regional and international markets. The following timeline presents the evolution of the gelatin industry in Egypt over the years.
1930s Amin Abdel Hami started his small factory to manually produce gelatin in the in the tanneries area of Old Cairo
1986 Ahmed El Amin studied Engineering and joined his father in the gelatin manufacturing factory
2003 El Amin Gelatin factory was set up in 6 October City, Egypt
2006 The first batch of gelatin was produced at El Amin high-tech factory
2011 El Amin Gelatin introduced new line of production to meet the increasing demand for gelatin products. Medical and pharmaceutical gelatin was also included in El Amin gelatin products.
2015 El Amin established their second factory in the industrial area in 6 October City, Egypt. Additional lines of gelatin production were introduced to meet the ever increasing local, regional and international demand for gelatin.
On an international level, gelatin was introduced as a pharmaceutical product in 1834 when French chemist Francois Mothers earned a patent for gelatin capsules to cover the bitter taste of medical drugs. In 1818 industrial gelatin for glue was introduced for the first time in France. As for gelatin-based food products, it was in 1845 that a patent was granted for gelatin powder that could be used in the kitchen to make gelatin desserts.
Due to the lengthy and sophisticated manual process by which gelatin was produced in the past, it was considered a sign of wealth, and only members of the elite classes were able to afford it. It took hard labour and long hours to make gelatin, clarify it, and turn it into fancy product for domestic use. Later on in history, when gelatin could be done at home by skilled kitchen staff, its use was a sign that the host or hostess had the means to support a kitchen staff with the skill and time to create such a dish.
When gelatin became available commercially it still was a symbol of culinary sophistication.
The timeline below shows the process by which gelatin was developed since Ancient Egyptian times.
1682 The first research experiments conducted on gelatin by French Scientist Denis Papin (1647-1712). His findings resulted in a gelatin production method which involved boiling animal bones in order to remove the glutinous material. The produced product had no taste and no smell, and no color when added to water. This was the first production of protein from animal bones.
1682 John Evelyn, an Englishan who was demonstrating the first pressure cooker discovered that a jelly-like material was produced when boiling the bones of beef in the pressure cooker
1754 The first English patent for the manufacture of gelatin was granted.
1800 – 1815 The French discovered the nutritional value of gelatin and used it as a source of food protein for the French soldiers
1818 Industrialized gelatin for glue was produced for the first time in Lyon in central eastern France.
1845 The Scottish company (J&G) produced for the first-time dried gelatin and exported the product to the United States
1845 A patent was granted to industrialist, inventor, and philanthropist, Peter Cooper (1791-1883) for a gelatin powder which he called Portable Gelatin. The new product became soluble in water. However, nothing was done with Cooper’s patent and there was little interest for it.
1860s Gelatin began to be used in other industries such as using it as a photosensitive material in the photography industry.
1874 The manufacture of gelatin jelly began with the British brand (Hartley’s).
1889 A patent was granted to Plymouth Rock Gelatin Company of Boston to produce phosphated Gelatin.
1894 The first pre-granulated gelatin was manufactured by Charles Knox. Knox watched his wife go through the long and difficult process of making gelatin in her kitchen. He made it his job to find an easier method to produce gelatin. He ended up with a product that was better than any other gelatin product in the market. Knox packaged dried sheets of gelatin and hired salesmen to travel door-to-door to show women how to add liquid to the sheets and use it to make different food recipes. He later on published a cook-book containing different types of gelatin-based food recipes.
1895 Pearl B. Wait, a cough-syrup manufacturer in New York started a new food business. His recipes included gelatin to fruit syrups like strawberry, raspberry, orange, and lemon. He named his dessert “Jell-O.” However, he was unable to market his product and ended up selling the recipe to his neighbor, Orator Francis Woodward.
1899 Orator Francis Woodward, purchased the Jello-O name and the business from Pearl Wait. With the new refrigeration technologies, Woodward was able to market the new gelatin-based dessert well and made a fortune.
1900s Food applications like jellies and gummy bears took advantage of gelatin processing refinements and its unique taste and odor-neutral gelling and thickening properties after decades of experimentation.
1902 Woodward launched a massive advertising campaign called “America’s most favorite Dessert” promoting the new Jello-O product and made an even bigger fortune selling it.
1923 Woodward’s successful company eventually became the famous General Foods Corporation
1927 Chocolate Jell-O was introduced and discontinued in 1927
1930 Jell-o came out with the now very popular lime jell-0.
1934 A huge advertising campaign was developed over the radio, and the product became known to the whole world and not only the United States of America.
1936 Chocolate Jell-O was reintroduced into the market as a pudding made by adding milk. The pudding became so popular that other pudding flavors were added such as vanilla, coconut and pistachio.
1940s Gelatin has become more and more widely used in the medical field. Gelatin-based substances replace plasma or thicken plasma.
It is worth noting that before the production of packaged gelatin, it was almost impossible to make good recipes that included gelatin. One had to boil the bones and skins of animals in a lengthy and laborious process for hours and hours in order to extract the gelatin and use it to cook a delicious recipe. When packaged gelatin was introduced in the 1950s it allowed people to cook fancy dessert with minimum effort.
Therefore, it was a combination of new technologies in the production of gelatin that allowed gelatin to become such a popular product in all industries.
It is also important to note that gelatin has become a famous and widely used product because of its nutritional benefit. It was universally acclaimed as one of the most nutritious food products particularly by the French, and was extensively used as a source of protein especially during the Napoleonic wars, to feed both the French army and civilians when food was scarce. This was the case especially during the siege of Paris, a doctor by the name of Gerard put his patients on a gelatin nutritional diet and they survived the siege in good health.
In the 1880’s the use of gelatin in photography brought photography into wider use. The first retail packs started been sold in the 1890’s
During both the First and Second world wars it was extensively used in various medical procedures. It has also been found to be useful in a long list of diseases.
Today it is extensively used in the food, beauty, healthcare and pharmaceutical industries amongst others
Today, gelatin is one of the main ingredients of other products in many different industries. It is a widely used product in the food industry, the pharmaceutical industry, as well as the health and nutritional fields. Its usage as an industrial product in the form of glue and adhesive is also very well recognized.
El Amin gelatin – with its long history in the gelatin production industry – is now one of the most credible and successful gelatin manufacturing businesses that deliver very high-quality products to the local, regional and international markets.