Xanthan Gum

About This Product

Xanthan gum is a microbial polysaccharide authorised as food additive E415 in the EU and UK, with the CAS number 11138-66-2. It is produced by fermenting a carbohydrate with the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris, then recovering the gum by precipitation with food-grade ethanol or isopropanol, drying and milling it. The result is a cream-coloured to white powder that dissolves in hot or cold water and builds viscosity at low concentrations.

Xanthan gum solutions are strongly pseudoplastic: they are thick at rest, which suspends particles and stops emulsions separating, yet thin readily when poured, pumped or swallowed, which gives a clean mouthfeel. Viscosity holds up across a wide pH range, in salt and sugar, through heating and through freeze-thaw cycles. Xanthan works synergistically with guar gum, which raises viscosity, and with locust bean gum, with which it forms elastic gels.

Typical applications, with typical use levels, are salad dressings and mayonnaise-style sauces at about 0.2 % to 0.4 %, cooking sauces, gravies and ready meals at about 0.1 % to 0.3 %, fruit drinks and nectars at about 0.05 % to 0.2 % for cloud and pulp suspension, gluten-free bread and bakery at about 1 % to 2 % of flour weight, and ice cream and frozen desserts as part of stabiliser blends. It is also used in fillings, syrups, instant soups and dysphagia thickeners.

Grades differ mainly by particle size and solution properties. 80 mesh is the general-purpose grade, easy to disperse and used in most sauces and dressings; 200 mesh hydrates faster for cold instant products but lumps more readily unless pre-blended; transparent grades give clearer solutions for beverages; and easily dispersible grades are treated to reduce lumping. Buyers typically agree the viscosity of a 1 % solution in 1 % potassium chloride, particle size, pyruvic acid, loss on drying, ash, residual ethanol or isopropanol, pH and microbiological limits. The grade should conform to the E415 purity criteria in Regulation (EU) No 231/2012 and its GB equivalent, or to FCC or JECFA for other markets.

Xanthan gum is authorised at quantum satis in many food categories under Annex II of Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 and the UK retained equivalent, but not everywhere. It may not be used in jelly mini-cups, and foods for infants and young children follow stricter rules, so check the current annex for your product. Declare it as thickener: xanthan gum, or stabiliser: E415, by function. Ask for a statement on the fermentation substrate if allergen or GMO status matters to you.

Store sealed in a cool, dry place; the powder is hygroscopic and fine grades are a combustible dust. When you enquire, give the application, mesh size, viscosity range, any transparency or dispersibility requirement, pack size, annual volume and destination.