A Common Food Additive--Xanthan Gum’s Wide Range of Uses in Food

A polysaccharide with several commercial applications, including as a typical food ingredient, is xanthan gum. It works well as a stabilizer, emulsifier, and thickening agent to keep components from separating. It may be made from simple sugars by a fermentation process, and it gets its name from the Xanthomonas campestris type of bacterium that is employed.

History

The United States Department of Agriculture's Allene Rosalind Jeanes and her research team discovered xanthan gum, which CP Kelco commercialized under the brand name Kelzan in the early 1960s. With the E number E415 and CAS number 11138-66-2, it was authorized for use in foods in 1968 and is recognized as a safe food additive in the USA, Canada, European nations, and many other countries.
The bacterium Xanthomonas campestris, which is utilized in the fermentation process, gives xanthan gum its name.

Uses

A liquid's viscosity can be significantly raised by adding 1% xanthan gum.

Xanthan gum is a frequent ingredient in sauces and salad dressings. Despite not being an emulsifier, it stabilizes the emulsion to aid in preventing oil separation. 

Spices and other solid particles can be suspended with the aid of xanthan gum. Many ice creams include xanthan gum to help achieve the correct texture.
Xanthan gum is frequently used as a binder in toothpaste to maintain consistency. Additionally, xanthan gum aids in thickening commercial egg replacements created from egg whites, which take the place of the yolk's fat and emulsifiers.

Since it doesn't alter the color or flavor of foods or beverages at common use levels, it is also the ideal way of thickening liquids for those with swallowing problems. Xanthan gum is used in gluten-free baking to impart the dough or batter with the stickiness that would normally be obtained with gluten.
It is utilized in the majority of foods in quantities of 0.5% or less.
Many different food products, including sauces, dressings, meat and poultry products, bread goods, confectionery goods, drinks, dairy goods, and others, employ xanthan gum.

Health

There may be some health advantages to xanthan gum. It has regulated blood sugar, reduced cholesterol, and relieved the signs of dysphagia in mice with skin cancer tumor development. As a laxative, xanthan gum may also be used.

Safety

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) conducted a safety study in 2017 and found that xanthan gum (European food additive number E 415) is extensively digested during intestinal fermentation and has no negative effects even at high consumption levels. The EFSA panel did not discover any evidence of long-term consumption-related genotoxicity. The EFSA came to the conclusion that using xanthan gum as a food ingredient poses no danger to the general public.