Xanthan Gum is produced by a process involving fermentation of glucose or sucrose by the Xanthomonas campestris bacterium. It is commercially manufactured by innoculating a sterile aqueous solution of carbohydrate(s), a source of nitrogen, di-potassium monohydrogen phosphate, and some trace elements. The medium is well-aerated and stirred, and the polymer is produced extracellularly into the medium. The final concentration of xanthan produced is about three to five percent by weight. After fermentation over about four days, the polymer is precipitated from the medium by the addition of isopropyl alcohol and dried and milled to give a powder that is readily soluble in water or brine.

The backbone of the polysaccharide chain consists of two β-D-glucose units linked through the 1 and 4 positions. The side chain consists of two mannose and one glucuronic acid, so the chain consists of repeating units of five sugar units. The side chain is linked to every other glucose of the backbone at the 3 position. About half of the terminal mannose units have a pyruvic acid group linked as a ketal to its 4 and 6 positions. The other mannose unit has an acetyl group at the 6 positions. Two of these chains may be aligned to form a double helix, giving a rather rigid rod configuration that accounts for its high efficiency as a viscosifier of water. The molecular weight of xanthan varies from about one million to 50 million depending upon how it is prepared.

Xanthan Gum gives high viscosity solutions at low concentrations and dissolves easily on stirring in to hot or cold water. Due to its ability to give high viscosity at low concentrations it is ideal as suspending agent. Xanthan gum Solutions are highly pseudoplastic and loose viscosity rapidly as shear rates increase. It has high "yield value".

Xanthan gum solutions are mostly stable over a wide pH range, wide temperature range and electrolytes have little effect on the Xanthan gum solution viscosities.