A extensively used meals thickener might have extra complicated results on the intestine than beforehand acknowledged.
Xanthan gum helps give ice cream, yogurt, sauces, truffles, and gluten-free pasta their acquainted texture. Valued for its thickening, stabilizing, and gelling properties, it’s among the many meals trade’s most generally used components. It additionally helps make liquids safer to swallow for individuals with dysphagia, a situation that causes problem swallowing.
Research from the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) in Brazil, nevertheless, raises questions concerning the results of extended consumption. Rats that acquired xanthan gum for ten weeks developed colon irritation, adjustments of their intestine microbiota, and diminished intestinal barrier integrity. The examine was supported by FAPESP.
“This isn’t about demonizing xanthan gum. Rather, it’s about emphasizing the need to invest in translational studies involving humans. It’s possible that occasional use in small amounts as an additive doesn’t harm health. The concern is with daily use as an ingredient and the cumulative effect of the thickener,” explains Alessandra Rischiteli, the nutritionist and speech-language pathologist who performed the examine. The findings have been revealed in PLOS One.
Daily publicity raises broader considerations
Scientific and medical curiosity in xanthan gum has elevated partly as a result of kids and older adults with dysphagia might devour it daily, Rischiteli notes. The additive can be widespread in ultra-processed meals, protein shakes, and dietary supplements. “Here, once again, the guidelines set forth in the Dietary Guidelines for the Brazilian Population – which recommend avoiding ultra-processed foods and foods high in additives – are relevant,” she says.
Xanthan gum is produced by means of biotechnology by fermenting materials with the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris. “It’s a plant pathogen that, in nature, infects a variety of plants and can be observed when cabbage or kale, for example, begin to spoil,” she says.
Some individuals with dysphagia depend on thickeners to devour sufficient meals and liquids, particularly after they can not tolerate pure choices similar to cornstarch. For these sufferers, Rischiteli says the purpose must be to scale back potential hurt moderately than merely take away a vital product. “Based on the results of the study, the recommendation is to monitor gut health and adopt strategies to protect the gut, such as using probiotics,” she states.
Infant instances achieve a potential clarification
The outcomes might assist make clear earlier reviews connecting xanthan gum with necrotizing enterocolitis in untimely infants within the United States. This severe illness causes intestinal irritation that may result in tissue loss of life.
In 2012, 22 newborns developed the situation after receiving formulation thickened with xanthan gum, and no less than three died. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) subsequently prohibited its use in untimely infants and advises in opposition to utilizing it in infants extra typically.
“Until then, the link between xanthan gum and the disease in infants was merely a clinical hypothesis or an empirical observation. This study on rats proved causality – that is, that xanthan gum does cause inflammation,” says Claudia Oller, a professor at UNIFESP who coordinated the examine.
The intestinal barrier begins to weaken
The researchers additionally examined the organic pathway by means of which the inflammatory response developed within the colon. “Xanthan gum is reactive and opens the intestinal barrier, altering a protein [Claudin-2] that’s responsible for regulating permeability between intestinal cells, which triggers an inflammatory cascade,” Rischiteli explains.
According to the researchers, this course of helps the mechanism beforehand proposed by American physicians to clarify what might happen within the immature intestines of untimely infants.
Rats fed the additive developed an inflammatory state marked by larger numbers of lymphocytes, immune protection cells, inside the intestinal wall. The response was strongest amongst animals receiving medium and excessive doses of xanthan gum.
Microscopic tissue examinations discovered increased irritation scores, whereas biochemical testing recognized important disruption of the intestinal barrier.
“This protein [Claudin-2] showed higher expression in the animals’ intestinal epithelium, indicating a loss of intestinal barrier integrity,” Rischiteli explains.
The rats additionally had elevated ranges of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and TNF-α, offering additional proof of an inflammatory response. “TNF-alpha, in particular, is associated with the death of cells lining the intestine [epithelium] and the development of inflammatory diseases,” she says.
Gut micro organism shift towards dysbiosis
Long-term xanthan gum consumption didn’t considerably cut back the general variety of the rats’ intestine microbiota. It did, nevertheless, change the steadiness amongst microbial teams.
One shift concerned a rise in micro organism belonging to the phylum Elusimicrobiota, which has been related to inflammatory situations.
“This change indicates a state of dysbiosis, even without major alterations in the dominant bacterial groups,” she states.
Reference: “Xanthan gum intake modifies the colon microbiota profile and causes mild colon inflammation in rats” by Alessandra B. Silva Rischiteli, Artur Francisco Silva-Neto, Paloma Korehisa Maza, Valter Tadeu Boldarine, Daniel Araki Ribeiro, Carolina Foot Gomes Moura, Marina Gomes Galvani, Raquel Galvão Figuerêdo, Giovana Jamar, Mariana de Moura Dias, Larissa Casemiro Pacheco Monteiro, Tiago Antonio de Oliveira Mendes, Lila Missae Oyama, Daniela Caetano Gonçalves and Claudia Maria Oller do Nascimento, 15 April 2026, PLOS ONE.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0347232
Funding: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
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