Jelly babies made with gelatine swell in cold water, while those made with gum arabic, agar, pectin or starch fall apart. Contrary to popular belief, the fact that gelatine jelly babies swell up has nothing to do with osmosis. In osmosis, water passes through a membrane.
Gelatine is able to absorb large qualities of water because the molecules attach themselves to particular structures of the protein molecules in the gelatine, greatly increasing their volume.
Chemists call this process gelatification.
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