Gellan Gum Nutrition Facts: High Acyl vs Low Acyl (and Why the Label Looks Strange)

If you have ever opened a gellan gum specification and stared at the nutrition section, you have probably hit the same three questions:

1. Why does one label say 78 g of carbohydrate and another says 0 g?
2. Why do suppliers quote 200 kcal, 168 kcal and 357 kcal per 100 g for what looks like the same powder?
3. Why can potassium differ so much between two grades of the same additive?

These differences do not necessarily mean that a product is wrong. They can result from the composition of the commercial grade, the manufacturing process, the analytical basis and the nutrition-labelling rules being applied. This post breaks it down grade by grade — high acyl (HA) and low acyl (LA) — and tells you which numbers can be used as representative values and which ones you should verify yourself.

Key takeaways

• Gellan gum is primarily a soluble, non-digestible polysaccharide, but a commercial grade is not only polysaccharide. Depending on the manufacturing process it can also contain moisture, nitrogen-containing/proteinaceous material, mineral salts and polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB). The exact composition is not universal. The cited commercial panels report 0 g fat, 0 g sugars and 0 mg cholesterol.
• The same commercial ingredient can appear very differently on US and EU nutrition panels, because the two systems classify and calculate carbohydrate/fibre differently. The reported 78–82 g values should be understood as nutrition-label values obtained under the applicable rule — not as a direct assay of pure gellan polysaccharide.
• The 2 kcal/g factor applies to soluble non-digestible carbohydrate under the applicable US calculation method, while EU Regulation 1169/2011 assigns 8 kJ/g (2 kcal/g) to dietary fibre for energy calculation. This helps explain some published energy values, but differences in the underlying commercial composition also matter.
• Minerals are strongly grade- and process-dependent. Sodium, potassium, calcium and other mineral values can vary substantially between commercial grades and manufacturers. Use your supplier's lot-specific data whenever available.
• At many typical food-use levels, often around 0.05–0.3 % depending on application, gellan gum makes only a small contribution to the finished product's nutrition panel.

First, what gellan gum actually is

Gellan gum (E418, INS 418, CAS 71010-52-1) is an extracellular polysaccharide produced by pure-culture fermentation of a carbohydrate substrate, traditionally described as fermentation by Pseudomonas elodea (now generally associated with Sphingomonas elodea), followed by recovery, drying and milling.

The backbone is a tetrasaccharide repeat unit: one molecule each of rhamnose and glucuronic acid, plus two of glucose. The glucuronic acid is neutralised to a mixed potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium salt — which is where the minerals on the nutrition panel come from. The native polymer also carries acyl groups (described in the current EU and US specifications as glyceryl and acetyl; EFSA refers to them as glycerate and acetate) as O-glycosidically linked esters.

Treating the material with alkali removes a substantial portion of those acyl groups. This is the fundamental chemical distinction between the conventional high-acyl and low-acyl commercial forms:

	High acyl (HA)	Low acyl (LA)
Acyl groups	Retained	Substantially removed by deacylation
Gel character	Soft, elastic, opaque, thermo-reversible	Firm, brittle, clearer, high gel strength
Typical gel set	~70–80 °C	~30–50 °C
Typical applications	Dairy, beverages, bakery fillings, plant-based systems	Dessert gels, confectionery, suspensions, plant tissue culture

Actual gelation temperature depends on concentration, cation type and concentration, pH and other formulation conditions.

The polymer backbone is essentially the same, but deacylation and subsequent purification can change the composition of the final powder.

The caveat that is easy to miss

There is an important qualification here that is easy to miss when reading a nutrition panel. EFSA's 2018 re-evaluation notes that commercial gellan gum samples may contain water at 2–14 %, nitrogen-containing/proteinaceous material corresponding to %N of 0–3.0 %, and polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB). The Panel reported PHB levels in dried gellan gum from less than 1 % up to 25 %, depending on the degree of deacylation and clarification, and explicitly noted that PHB may be a major component of E 418 resulting from the manufacturing process.

This matters for nutrition calculations. For US nutrition labelling, total carbohydrate is calculated by difference. Therefore, a value such as 78–82 g/100 g should not automatically be interpreted as a direct assay of pure gellan polysaccharide. The value reflects the applicable nutrition calculation for the commercial ingredient, whose composition may include components other than the gellan polysaccharide itself.

The nutrition panel: HA vs LA, per 100 g

The figures below are representative values from specific commercial grades, not universal composition values for all HA or LA gellan gum products. Actual values can vary with grade, moisture, clarification, deacylation, purification, PHB content and mineral composition.

Parameter (per 100 g)	High acyl (HA)	Low acyl (LA)	Basis
Energy	200 kcal / 838 kJ	≈164–168 kcal / ≈690–704 kJ	Depends on declared protein and the calculation basis; verify against the actual supplier panel
Protein (N × 6.25)	11 g	0–1 g	Grade-specific — verify against your nitrogen result
Total fat	0 g	0 g	Representative values
Saturated fat	0 g	0 g	Representative values
Trans fat	0 g	0 g	Representative values
Cholesterol	0 mg	0 mg	Representative values
Total carbohydrate — US	78 g	82 g	US calculation by difference
Total carbohydrate — EU	0 g	0 g	Representative EU declaration
Dietary fibre — US	0 g	0 g	Gellan gum is not currently among FDA's recognised isolated/synthetic dietary fibres
Dietary fibre — EU	78 g	82 g	Representative commercial-grade EU values
Total sugars	0 g	0 g	Representative values
Added sugars	0 g	0 g	Representative values
Sodium (Na)	625 mg	478 mg	Grade-specific
Salt (EU, Na × 2.5)	1,563 mg	≈1,195 mg	Derived
Potassium (K)	1,477 mg	4,650 mg	Grade-specific
Calcium (Ca)	207 mg	252 mg	Grade-specific
Phosphorus (P)	230 mg	115 mg	Grade-specific
Magnesium (Mg)	not declared	91 mg	Grade-specific
Iron (Fe)	2 mg	4 mg	Grade-specific
Vitamin D	not declared	not declared	Not a routine declaration on the cited panels; CP Kelco's HA-B sheet lists 0 mcg
Moisture\*	6 g	7 g	Information only
Ash\*	5 g	≈10–11 g	Information only; by difference, depends on declared protein

\* Moisture and ash are not standard nutrition-labelling values in either jurisdiction. They are included here for formulation and composition context.

The HA figures correspond closely to CP Kelco's published KELCOGEL® HA-B nutritional information dated July 26, 2021, which reports 200 kcal, 11 g protein, 78 g total carbohydrate and 0 g dietary fibre under the US framework, together with 625 mg sodium, 1,477 mg potassium, 207 mg calcium, 230 mg phosphorus, 2 mg iron, 5 g ash and 6 g moisture per 100 g.

For LA, the 82 g fibre, 7 g moisture, 252 mg calcium, 115 mg phosphorus, 4 mg iron, 91 mg magnesium, 478 mg sodium and 4,650 mg potassium values are reported for CP Kelco Kelcogel® F in a peer-reviewed food science study.

The close agreement across sources is useful evidence for those specific commercial LA products, but it should not be interpreted as a universal LA specification.

Why the numbers look strange — four things to understand

1. Almost the entire powder is soluble, non-digestible carbohydrate — but not necessarily pure gellan polysaccharide

There is generally very little free sugar, starch or fat in food-grade gellan gum. The principal component is the gellan polysaccharide, together with smaller or sometimes substantial amounts of nitrogen-containing material, mineral salts, moisture and potentially PHB.

EFSA's review is particularly important here because it prevents an overly simple interpretation of the nutrition panel. Commercial samples were reported to contain 2–14 % water, nitrogen-containing/proteinaceous material corresponding to 0–3.0 % nitrogen, and PHB ranging from below 1 % to as high as 25 % depending on deacylation and clarification.

So when a US nutrition panel shows around 78–82 g of total carbohydrate, that number should not automatically be read as "78–82 g of pure gellan gum polysaccharide."

The correct interpretation is more nuanced: the panel is describing the composition according to the applicable nutrition calculation, while the actual commercial powder can contain several other non-water components.

2. The US/EU carbohydrate split — the 78 vs 0 puzzle

This is one of the most common sources of confusion.

• US (21 CFR 101.9): total carbohydrate is calculated by subtracting crude protein, total fat, moisture and ash from total weight. The regulation separately defines dietary fibre and specifies which isolated or synthetic non-digestible carbohydrates qualify.
• EU (Regulation 1169/2011): dietary fibre is declared separately from carbohydrate and has its own energy conversion factor.

For the cited commercial HA-B grade, the manufacturer reports:

• US: 78 g total carbohydrate / 0 g dietary fibre
• EU: 0 g carbohydrate / 78 g dietary fibre

The same commercial ingredient can therefore appear very differently on US and EU nutrition panels, because the two systems classify and calculate carbohydrate/fibre differently. The reported 78–82 g values should still be understood as nutrition-label values, not as a direct assay of pure gellan polysaccharide.

But there is an important US regulatory distinction: being a soluble, non-digestible polysaccharide does not automatically make gellan gum a dietary fibre under FDA nutrition-labelling rules. FDA's current list of isolated or synthetic non-digestible carbohydrates recognised as dietary fibre includes substances such as beta-glucan, psyllium husk, cellulose, guar gum, pectin, locust bean gum and HPMC; gellan gum is not included in that list.

One manufacturer's stated position — CP Kelco

At least one manufacturer puts this in writing for its own product. In the product nutritional information sheet for KELCOGEL® HA-B (26 July 2021), CP Kelco states:

> "While it counts toward the calculation of total carbohydrates, CP Kelco does not promote any claims for the food additive gellan gum as a dietary fiber to be claimed in the finished food product. The customer should keep records to this effect in accordance with 21 CFR 101.9(g)(10) and (11)."

Note the subject of that sentence: it is one manufacturer's claims policy for its own ingredient, not a regulatory prohibition imposed by FDA. It is consistent with the FDA list described above, but the two statements are different in kind — one is a company's position on finished-product claims, the other is the regulatory definition of dietary fibre. Do not quote the CP Kelco sentence as if it were law, and do not generalise it to every supplier.

The recordkeeping requirement

Separately, and as a matter of regulation: for products containing mixtures of recognised dietary fibre and added non-digestible carbohydrates that do not meet the FDA definition, 21 CFR 101.9(g)(10) requires manufacturers to make and keep records verifying the declared amounts. Under §101.9(g)(11), the relevant records must generally be retained for at least two years and made available to FDA upon request.

This is why a manufacturer preparing a US finished-product nutrition panel should keep the supporting formulation and calculation records rather than simply copying a supplier's fibre number.

3. Energy: the 2 kcal/g rule, and why published values disagree

Under 21 CFR 101.9, the US calculation method provides a 2 kcal/g factor for soluble non-digestible carbohydrates when the applicable calculation method is used. EU Regulation 1169/2011 assigns 8 kJ/g (2 kcal/g) to dietary fibre for energy calculation.

Run the arithmetic on the HA panel:

protein       11 g × 4 kcal/g =  44 kcal
carbohydrate  78 g × 2 kcal/g = 156 kcal
fat            0 g × 9 kcal/g =   0 kcal
                               --------
                                 200 kcal

For the LA examples, the declared protein matters:

82 g fibre × 2 kcal/g   = 164 kcal
 0 g protein × 4 kcal/g =   0 kcal
                          --------
                           164 kcal

If the same 82 g fibre is accompanied by 1 g declared protein:

82 g fibre × 2 kcal/g   = 164 kcal
 1 g protein × 4 kcal/g =   4 kcal
                          --------
                           168 kcal

This helps explain why published LA energy values cluster around 164–168 kcal/100 g, although the exact commercial label value may not reconcile perfectly from the rounded nutrient declarations shown on the panel. The commercial nutrition panels are not necessarily built from exactly the same rounded component declarations — which is why the table above gives LA energy as ≈164–168 kcal rather than a single figure.

Now consider a commercial product reporting approximately 357 kcal/100 g. Its published composition includes approximately:

73.4 g carbohydrate × 4 kcal/g = 293.6 kcal
12.2 g protein      × 4 kcal/g =  48.8 kcal
 1.04 g fat         × 9 kcal/g =   9.4 kcal
                                 --------
                                 351.8 kcal

That is already very close to the reported value, allowing for rounding, composition and the specific calculation basis. So in this case, the use of the general 4 kcal/g carbohydrate factor is a major contributor to the higher reported energy value.

However, this should not be turned into a universal rule that every 285 or 357 kcal value is simply an error. Different commercial grades can genuinely have different protein, moisture, ash and other compositional values, so the composition — not only the conversion factor — can contribute to the spread.

Practical rule: when comparing energy values, check the underlying nutrition data and calculation basis rather than comparing the headline kcal number alone.

4. Minerals are a process fingerprint, not a constant

This is where you should stop copying published tables blindly.

Low-acyl gellan gum is produced through deacylation, and the final mineral profile can be strongly affected by the alkali/counterions used, neutralisation, washing, recovery and other process conditions.

That helps explain why the cited LA grade contains 4,650 mg potassium/100 g, compared with 1,477 mg/100 g in the cited HA grade — a substantial difference for those two specific grades.

But that comparison is between specific commercial grades, not a universal rule that every LA grade contains several times as much potassium as every HA grade. The wider commercial market also shows that mineral profiles can differ substantially between manufacturers: different grades have different recovery, neutralisation and washing histories, and published LA panels exist with almost the inverse sodium/potassium pattern.

Practical rule: treat minerals as product-specific analytical values. Sodium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, ash and protein should come from your own lot-specific COA or a recent third-party analysis whenever they matter to the finished-product calculation.

Bonus: why does HA report 11 g of protein and LA report 0–1 g?

This surprises people, but the difference is plausible and can be seen in commercial nutrition data.

Protein on a food panel is commonly calculated from nitrogen using a conversion factor. For the example table above, the stated basis is N × 6.25.

JECFA's gellan gum specification includes a nitrogen limit of not more than 3 % (prepared at the 49th JECFA, 1997; FNP 52 Add 5), while EFSA noted that commercial samples can contain nitrogen-containing/proteinaceous material corresponding to %N values from 0 to 3.0 %.

Differences in deacylation, purification and washing can affect the amount of nitrogen-containing material remaining in the final powder. Therefore, the 11 g protein figure reported for the cited HA grade should not be treated as a universal HA characteristic, and the 0–1 g LA values should not be treated as universal LA specifications.

Treat protein as a grade-specific analytical value and derive your own figure from an actual nitrogen determination when you need to prepare a product-specific nutrition panel.

What this means at real use levels

Gellan gum is used at low levels in many food applications — often around 0.05–0.3 % depending on the application and desired functionality, although some systems use more.

Take a representative 0.2 % use level in a 100 g serving, using the cited HA panel:

Contribution per 100 g serving	Amount
Gellan gum added	0.20 g
Energy	0.4 kcal
Fibre / carbohydrate	0.156 g
Sodium	1.25 mg

At this dosage, the contribution is small enough that it will often have little practical effect on the finished product's declared nutrition values after the applicable rounding rules are applied.

In other words, gellan gum earns its place primarily through texture, suspension and stability — not through a significant nutritional contribution.

Safety and regulatory status

• United States — Gellan gum is listed by FDA as a food additive under 21 CFR 172.665, for use as a stabilizer or thickener in accordance with current good manufacturing practice.
• European Union — Gellan gum is authorised as E 418, with identity and purity criteria established under Commission Regulation (EU) No 231/2012. EFSA's re-evaluation identified PHB, protein and residual bacterial enzymatic activity as areas where specifications could be better defined.
• International — JECFA established an ADI of "not specified" for gellan gum at its 37th meeting (1990) (Report TRS 806-JECFA 37/25; toxicological monograph FAS 28-JECFA 37/289). The evaluation carries the comment: "The potential laxative effect at high intakes should be taken into account when used as a food additive."
• China — Gellan gum is listed in China's food additive standard GB 2760 as a thickener, with use conditions depending on food category.

What to verify on your supplier's documentation

Before you publish a nutrition panel, confirm these five things:

1. Which market — US or EU. The applicable rules can change how carbohydrate and fibre are declared.
2. Which energy calculation basis — check whether the applicable regulatory calculation uses the 2 kcal/g factor for the relevant soluble non-digestible carbohydrate/fibre fraction, and whether the supplier's published value is based on actual composition data.
3. Nitrogen result — confirm the nitrogen result and the protein conversion factor used for your intended labelling market.
4. Na, K, Ca, Mg and other minerals — use your own lot-specific data rather than assuming a published commercial table represents every grade.
5. Residual solvent — check isopropyl alcohol against the applicable FCC/JECFA/E 418 specification; the JECFA monograph (prepared at the 49th JECFA, 1997; FNP 52 Add 5) gives isopropyl alcohol: not more than 750 mg/kg, alongside nitrogen (not more than 3 %), loss on drying (not more than 15 %, 105 °C, 2½ h) and lead (not more than 2 mg/kg).

If your supplier cannot give you lot-specific analytical data for composition or minerals, treat any published nutrition table as indicative rather than a product specification.

FAQ

Is gellan gum a dietary fibre?
Gellan gum is a soluble, non-digestible polysaccharide, but that chemical description should not be confused with the regulatory definition of dietary fibre. Whether it can be declared as dietary fibre on a nutrition label depends on the applicable jurisdiction and its regulatory definition. The cited EU commercial grades are reported as fibre, while gellan gum is not currently among the isolated/synthetic non-digestible carbohydrates specifically recognised by FDA as dietary fibre in US nutrition labelling.

Is it keto- or low-carb friendly?
At typical use levels of 0.05–0.3 %, the contribution of gellan gum to a finished product's carbohydrate/energy intake is generally very small. However, the finished-product nutrition declaration should always be calculated according to the applicable market rules.

Does gellan gum contain sugar or starch?
The cited food-grade commercial panels report 0 g sugars, and gellan gum itself is not a starch ingredient. It is produced by fermentation of a carbohydrate substrate, but the finished ingredient is primarily the recovered polysaccharide together with other process-dependent components.

Is it vegan and allergen-free?
Gellan gum is fermentation-derived and does not inherently require an animal-derived raw material. However, vegan status, allergen status and certification should be verified against the specific supplier, manufacturing site and product documentation rather than assumed solely from the chemical name.

Why is sodium on the panel at all?
Because the glucuronic acid groups in gellan gum are neutralised to salts containing cations such as sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium. The EU specification describes gellan gum as a mixed potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium salt. For EU nutrition labelling, salt is calculated from sodium using the regulatory conversion factor of 2.5.

Sources and a note on reliability

The high acyl figures above are taken from CP Kelco's published product nutritional information for KELCOGEL® HA-B, dated July 26, 2021. The document reports 200 kcal, 11 g protein, 78 g US carbohydrate, 78 g EU dietary fibre, 625 mg sodium, 1,477 mg potassium, 207 mg calcium, 230 mg phosphorus, 2 mg iron, 5 g ash and 6 g moisture per 100 g.

The low acyl figures are supported by three named sources:

• CP Kelco / Kelcogel® F composition data, reproduced in a peer-reviewed food science study (Novel mango bars using gellan gum as gelling agent): 82 g carbohydrate/fibre, 7 g moisture, 252 mg Ca, 115 mg P, 4 mg Fe, 91 mg Mg, 478 mg Na and 4,650 mg K per 100 g.
• Louis François commercial EU label — Gellan Gum: 168 kcal / 704 kJ, 82 g fibre, 0 g protein and 478 mg sodium per 100 g.
• Creative Cuisine commercial EU label — GELLAN: 168 kcal / 704 kJ, 82 g fibre, 1 g protein and 478 mg sodium per 100 g.

These sources agree closely for the particular LA products they describe, which increases confidence in the representative LA values. They should nevertheless not be interpreted as universal specifications for every low-acyl gellan gum grade.

The regulatory basis for US carbohydrate, dietary fibre, energy calculation and recordkeeping comes from 21 CFR 101.9. The regulation specifically provides a 2 kcal/g factor for soluble non-digestible carbohydrate and requires certain records to support dietary-fibre declarations where qualifying and non-qualifying non-digestible carbohydrates are mixed.

EFSA's 2018 re-evaluation is also essential context, because it shows why a simple "78–82 % pure polysaccharide" interpretation can be misleading: commercial samples were reported to contain water, nitrogen-containing material and PHB, with PHB estimated from below 1 % to 25 % depending on deacylation and clarification.

Regulatory and specification references

Claim in this article	Source
ADI "not specified"; laxative-effect comment	JECFA, 37th meeting (1990) — Report TRS 806-JECFA 37/25; toxicological monograph FAS 28-JECFA 37/289 (JECFA evaluations summary, INS 418)
Nitrogen ≤ 3 %; isopropyl alcohol ≤ 750 mg/kg; loss on drying ≤ 15 %; lead ≤ 2 mg/kg	JECFA specification monograph for gellan gum, prepared at the 49th JECFA (1997), published in FNP 52 Add 5 (FAO Combined Compendium of Food Additive Specifications)
US food additive status, stabilizer/thickener, cGMP	21 CFR 172.665 (eCFR)
US carbohydrate by difference; 2 kcal/g for soluble non-digestible carbohydrate; fibre recordkeeping	21 CFR 101.9, incl. (c)(6)(i), (g)(10) and (g)(11)
EU authorisation and identity/purity criteria	Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008; Commission Regulation (EU) No 231/2012 (E 418)
EU fibre declared separately; 8 kJ/g (2 kcal/g) for fibre	Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 (Annex I, conversion factors)
PHB, water 2–14 %, %N 0–3.0 %	EFSA re-evaluation of gellan gum (E 418) as a food additive, EFSA Journal 16(1):5296 (2018)

Confidence by category:

Category	Confidence	Why
HA energy, carbohydrate/fibre, fat, sugars	High	Directly supported by a named manufacturer's published nutrition document
LA energy and carbohydrate/fibre	High for the cited commercial grades	Supported by multiple named commercial and literature sources, but not universal across all LA products
Carbohydrate / fibre treatment by jurisdiction	High	Based on current US and EU nutrition-labelling rules
Protein	Medium	Strongly grade-specific and dependent on nitrogen analysis/conversion
Sodium, potassium and other minerals	Medium	Can vary substantially by grade and manufacturer
Moisture, ash	Medium	Useful for composition context but not standard nutrition-label declarations
PHB contribution	High as a compositional caveat	Explicitly documented by EFSA, but actual commercial concentration is highly grade/process-dependent

This article is provided for technical information only. Values are representative and are not specification limits. They do not constitute labelling or regulatory advice for any specific product. Always confirm against your own lot-specific certificate of analysis and the regulations in force in your target market.

---