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How do stabilizers help maintain foam in food products?

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A woman reads the nutrition labels on two brightly colored boxes of cereal. — food additive Labels provide information on a food product's ingredients and nutritional value.

Stabilizers help maintain foam in food products by increasing the viscosity of the aqueous phase, a mechanism similar to how they stabilize emulsions.1

While stabilizers often function by adsorbing to the surface of oil droplets to prevent them from coalescing, in the context of foam, the oil phase is replaced by a gas phase. By thickening the liquid surrounding the gas bubbles, these agents—which typically consist of polysaccharides like gums or proteins such as gelatin—prevent the gas bubbles from collapsing or separating, thereby preserving the foam's structure and consistency.1