Why We Use Guar Gum In Our Gelato

From the very start, we made the decision at Beau’s to only use natural ingredients and use as few additives as possible. Where it is necessary, we steadfastly refuse to use anything artificial in our gelato.

We currently only use two additives in our gelato, and have no plans to add any more for the foreseeable. Both are natural, plant-based ingredients – sunflower lecithin improves texture and prolong shelf life, while guar gum acts as a thickener, ingredient stabiliser and binding agent to stop ingredients from separating.

Of the two, guar gum is perhaps less well known. This is a natural substance made from milling the seeds of guar beans, and is naturally low in calories and rich in fibre and protein. Guar gum is an excellent thickening agent, being eight times more effective than cornflour and, unlike similar thickening agents like xanthan gum or carrageenan, it has a high tolerance for frozen conditions. This means it is the ideal ingredient to naturally set our ice cream and gelato recipes.

As well as being natural and fully vegan, evidence exists that suggests several potential health benefits from guar gum. As well as acting as a prebiotic, promoting good bacteria at the expense of bad, guar gum can slow absorption of glucose, reducing 'sugar spikes' in the body post-consumption. As a high fibre ingredient, guar gum can also help leave you more sated (or ‘full’) after eating food containing it.

While this all sounds great, there should be a slight note of caution around how much guar gum can be safely used in foodstuffs. If used in very high volumes, guar gum can instead have adverse health effects, as number of diet companies found out in the 90s when they crammed huge amounts of guar gum into their supplements to act as appetite suppressants.

 The sheer volume of guar gum contained in these products caused some dieters to experience bowel and oesophagus problems, leading to the products being recalled from sale.  

These days, the use of guar gum is closely monitored in such products and – as a result of extensive studies into the ingredient – we now have a much better idea of how much of this ingredient can be consumed without any risk, with an upper ceiling set at 15g per serving.

At Beau’s, we use only need to us a very small amount in each tub – 0.4g – which is well below the serving limit set out. This means you’d need to consume 37 ½ tubs of Beau’s in a single sitting to meet this recommended limit (that works out at 225 individual servings, which we suspect even the most avid ice cream aficionado would struggle with!).

All commercially-sold ice cream need an additive that thickens and stabilises so it can be stored without the various ingredients separating. Of the various options for doing this, guar gum ticks all the right boxes as a plant-based, natural ingredient with a decent nutritional profile.