This is a dream come true. I find myself standing in the Food product development lab at Massey University in Palmy. The pantry I discovered is stocked with fresh ingredients!(so not!)I browse around and I know I have discovered the melting pot of stabilisers and emulsifiers. Got ya! I thought. So these are the creepy crawlies "on the label". Ingredients on the edge that adds another dimension to the philosophy of "living dangerously".On my first day of being a Royal Society Fellow at Massey University Food Technology, I got issued with a list of food science experiments. The experiments varied from the ancient ones (at least they were old news back in the seventies of teaching Home economics in South Africa) to fabulously exciting experiments that will knock the socks of any student in the kitchen. Going through the experiments was like opening up a box of chocolates. Every second experiment had the WOW factor!After having completed the safety induction to the Lab the kitchen was mine! My first experiment was the development of an Acidified Milk Drink and of course it could only be done successfully by adding some of those dreaded additives, but when you are in Rome that is what you do. Lovely results and I knew that this would make an exciting introduction to a product development lesson back at school.Back behind my desk I knew that I had to balance the forces between the 'pen and the grader'! OK, so what happened back in the kitchen? The dodgy ingredient used in my AMD is 'Pectin'. I know about the value of pectin in the production of jam and jelly, but hey this time it came as a powder in a jar!Bottom line of the story is that the pectin used is derived from apple pomace and that most 'gelling agents' are additives used to thicken and stabilise liquids. Rest assure most are from natural plant or animal origin.