A popular chewing gum brand has come up with a rather abysmal advertisement telling us how we need to chew their confectionary in order to reap the benefits of a ‘face ka gym’ (exercising the facial muscle, we presume). Well, you actually do not need a reason for chewing a gum. Do you? But have you ever wondered how the sugary, rubbery substance is manufactured? What are its ingredients? What stops it from melting inspite of that incessant chewing?

How is chewing gum made?

1. The most important ingredient in a chewing gum is its gum base. Made of a combination of food-grade polymers, waxes and softeners, this is what gives the gum its ‘chew’ and texture. As a first step, all the ingredients are melted and filtered to prepare the base.
2. Next, sugar, glucose syrup and flavouring are added to the base by machines called the extruders. The mix is blended till it becomes as smooth as dough.
3. The mix is now shaped. This is the stage where the gum gets its form – flattened into strips or cut into cubes or any other desired shape. You do not just eat voluminous chunks of gum, right? Finally, it is coated or sprinkled with sweetener. If the gum is candy coated, like most gum balls or pellet gums, it is sprayed with liquid sweetener, allowed to dry and then sprayed again. This process is repeated several times until the candy shell gets the desired thickness.
4. The shaped gum is now cooled for up to 48 hours, allowing it to set properly. Finally, wrapping and packaging is done in air tight wrappers to ensure the gum is fresh and soft when you open the pack!

FUN FACTS

1. Chewing gum, once a natural product derived from spruce, paraffin, or even rubber, has actually been chewed since ancient times. The ancient Greeks chewed resin called chicle. (So the modern day name chiclet!)
2. Obtained from the sapodilla tree, chicle had a unique ability to retain flavor and helped popularise chewing gum.
3. State of Maine Spruce Gum, the first commercial chewing gum was created in 1848 by John B. Curtis.
4. Turkey has the largest number of chewing gum manufacturers – 60.

Chewing gum is definitely a littering hazard (not really an environmental one)! Remember countries like Singapore imposed a complete ban on chewing gum that was finally lifted in 2004? So, for the sake of hygiene and cleanliness, be considerate gum-chewers people!

Manufacturers insist that chewing gum ingredients are a trade ‘secret formula’!