AbstractXanthan gum, the extracellular polysaccharide from Xanthomonas comperstris, provides aqueous solutions with properties that are extremely useful in a large number of industrial applications, both food and non‐food. These properties, a consequence of xanthan gum's particular molecular shape, are: high at‐rest or low‐shear viscosity even at low gum concentrations, yield value, high pseudoplasticity, increased viscosity in the presence of added salt depending on gum concentration, stable viscosity over a wide range of temperature and pH in the presence of added salt, synergistic increase in viscosity in the presence of guar gum and locust bean gum, thermoreversible gelation with locust bean gum at appropriate gum concentratins, and gelation with di‐and trivalent metal ions and borates under specific conditions. Xanthan gum is thus an excellent stabiliser for a wide variety of suspensions, emulsions, and foams and is highly effective over a range of temperature, pH and ionic strength. In addition, its pseudoplasticity allows the formulation of products which require not only high at‐rest viscosity but also low viscosity under highshear application conditions.