Xanthan Gum
is a food additive that is primarily used to thicken, emulsify, and stabilize water-based foods. It helps things like salad dressings stay mixed, for instance. As a general rule, oil will try to pull away from other ingredients, particularly water, and the gum helps prevent this from happening. The additive also helps lend a smoother, creamier texture to certain foods, particularly ice cream. Fresh ice cream often has a really custard-like smooth taste, but this can be hard to maintain after a lot of time in a deep freeze; the gum can help preserve a lot of the smoothness and can help the ingredients resist becoming crumbly or dry. The additive is also effective as a general binding agent, and is often a really popular choice for gluten-free foods like breads that might be prone to disintegrating without the stickiness of gluten molecules to hold them together. Most food safety organizations and oversight committees have found the additive to be safe, particularly if use...