Food hydrocolloids offer significant functionality to the food scientist, but options are impacted by marketing's working definition of clean label and perceptions of quality implied by the ingredients used in a formulation. This discussion is limited to food gums, defined as non-starch, hydrocolloid ingredients that are soluble or form colloidal suspensions in water. Thus, ingredients which are a source of insoluble fiber are not included. (Starches were addressed in an article titled “Retro Starches…Back to the Future?” in the September 2006 issue of Prepared Foods.)