[1] The gellan-producing bacterium was discovered and isolated by the former Kelco Division of Merck & Company, Inc. in 1978 from the lily plant tissue from a natural pond in Pennsylvania.

It was initially identified as a gelling agent to replace agar at significantly lower concentrations in solid culture media for the growth of various microorganisms.

[2] Its initial commercial product with the trademark as Gelrite gellan gum, was subsequently identified as a suitable agar substitute as gelling agent in various clinical bacteriological media.

Although advertised as being inert, experiments with the moss Physcomitrella patens have shown that choice of the gelling agent—agar or Gelrite—does influence phytohormone sensitivity of the plant cell culture.

Gellan gum has subsequently been approved for food, non-food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical uses by many other countries such as US, Canada, China, Korea and the European Union etc.

[8] Gellan gum, when properly hydrated, can be used in ice cream and sorbet recipes that behave as a fluid gel after churning.