To stabilise a food is to treat it, or to add something to it, so that it keeps its intended texture, appearance, flavour, and safety throughout storage and distribution. A manufacturer might stabilise an ice cream with guar gum to stop ice crystals growing, stabilise a salad dressing with xanthan gum to stop the oil and vinegar separating, or stabilise a wine by cold-settling and filtration to prevent tartrate crystals forming in the bottle. Stabilising can also mean making the product microbiologically secure, for instance by pasteurisation. The verb also describes the product itself settling into a steady state, as when a freshly fermented cheese stabilises during maturation.