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There's been a discussion on LinkedIn regarding a corn-free xanthan gum.
Authentic Foods advertises that their gum is corn-free.  After several phone
calls with Steve at Authentic Foods and some research, here's what I've
learned:

Xanthan gum is only made in two places.  There's one company in the U.S. and
the rest comes from China.  There's no way to know exactly how the xanthan
gum is grown or treated in China, but it's shipped to Europe to be packaged.
It has a gray color and it doesn't work as well as the U.S. grown gum, but
it costs about 50% less so it's taken over the market. 

The xanthan gum grown in the U.S. starts with a bacteria that is grown on
cabbage.  It's fed a glucose mixture (often a corn sugar that contains no
proteins) to enable the bacteria to grow.  Once grown, the gum has a water
bath and all the corn sugar is washed off.  The gum is then pasteurized
which kills off the bacteria before it is milled.  The result is a pure
white powder.  Authentic Foods has had their xanthan gum analyzed by
Nebraska University and the results confirm that it is totally corn-free.

Unfortunately, Authentic Foods is uncertain how long they will be able to
continue to offer this corn-free xanthan gum because Steve anticipates that,
within the year, the U.S.-grown gum will no longer be available.  

Connie Sarros
Gluten-free Cookbooks
www.gfbooks.homestead.com      

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