What is gelatin?

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Gelatin is a protein-derived substance obtained by partially hydrolyzing collagen. Collagen is the main structural protein in animal connective tissues, and when it’s treated with heat or mild acids/bases, the long collagen molecules break into shorter polypeptide chains. Those chains, made of amino acids linked by peptide bonds, form a gel-like network when dispersed in water and cooled, which is why gelatin is widely used as a gelling and stabilizing agent. It is not a carbohydrate, lipid, or nucleic acid, since those groups are built from sugars, fats, or nucleotides, respectively; gelatin’s defining feature is its origin from collagen and its nature as peptide-based material.