For viscosity modification many gum products are used, the most important one being the Xanthan gum. Of course there are many other similar products like guar gum, gum Arabic, Locust bean gum, gum Tragacanth, Carrageenan etc. Modified starches and cellulose based gum substitutes are also available to the food industry for rheology modification in newly developed processed foods. Xanthan gum became an accepted food additive with an E number of E415 since 1960s after it was approved as a safe ingredient. It is produced by fermentation from glucose using the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris. At a concentration of 0.5% or less it can thicken water based emulsions dramatically providing desired look and mouth feel for the product.
"Xanthan gum export prices are currently as low as $3.11 to $5.06 a kilo (depending on grade) according to CyberColloids, which has published a new market report on the versatile hydrocolloid. In the past, they have been $8 to $9 a kilo. As well as being used in foods like dairy products, sauces, beverages and ready meals, lower grade xanthan gum is also used as a lubricant in oil drilling, Ross Campbell of CyberColloids explained to Foodnavigator.com. But since demand from this area has plummeted, any supplier for which this was a major market now has a lot of spare capacity. In 2009, the oil industry remained the largest industry using xanthan gum, accounting for 40,300 metric tonnes, compared to 37,090. But although overall volume growth has been great since 2004 – from 70,000 to 96,000 – the 2009 figure is down 9.3 per cent on 2008".
Use by food industry provides a "value added" outlet for Xanthan gum whereas oil drilling industry uses low grade material with low prices to thicken the drilling mud. With the recent opening up of Eastern Sea board in the US for oil exploration and Myanmar's off shore drilling assuming importance, Xanthan gum will continue to be absorbed in high volumes by the oil exploration agencies though there could be small incremental growth in its use by the food industry.
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