Chewing gum
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Image:Nikotinkaugummis.jpg Chewing gum is a type of confectionery which is designed to be chewed, not swallowed. Traditionally, it was made of chicle, a natural latex product, although for reasons of economy many modern chewing gums use petroleum-based plastic instead of chicle. Chicle is nonetheless still the base of choice for some "upscale" gum brands, as well as some regional markets, such as in Japan.
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History of gum
Chewing gum, in various forms, has existed since at least Ancient Greece. The Greeks chewed mastic gum, made from the bark of the mastic tree. Betel, a mild narcotic, has enjoyed popularity in India for millenia. Many other cultures have chewed gum-like substances made from plants, grasses, and resins.
The American Indians chewed resin made from the sap of spruce trees. The New England settlers picked up this practice, and in the early 1880s attempts were made to commercially market spruce gum. Around 1850 a gum made from paraffin wax was developed and soon exceeded the spruce gum in popularity.
Modern chewing gum was first developed in the 1860s when chicle was imported from Mexico for use as a rubber subsititute. Chicle didn't pan out as a replacement for rubber, but as a gum it soon dominated the market. Chicle gum, and gum made from similar latexes, had a smoother and softer texture and held flavor better.
In 1855 a group of liberals led by Benito Juárez and Ignacio Comonfort overthrew Mexican dictator Santa Anna and he fled back to Cuba. He then lived in exile in Cuba, the United States, Colombia, and St. Thomas. During his time in New York City he is credited as bringing the first shipments of chicle, the base of chewing gum, to the United States, but he failed to profit from this since his plan was to use the chicle to replace rubber in carriage tires, which was tried without success. The American assigned to aid Santa Anna while he was in the US, James Adams, conducted experiments with the chicle and called it "Chiclets", which helped found the chewing gum industry.
William Semple filed the first patent on chewing gum (patent number 98,304) in 1869.
Types of gum
The standard type of gum is a small stick or wad of gum. Gum comes in a variety of flavors, depending on location and is most often chewed for the flavor.
Nicotine gum is designed especially for people who are trying to quit smoking. The gum contains a small amount of nicotine to combat cravings, and gives the former smoker something to do besides hold a cigarette in their mouth.
Several types of gum are designed specifically for dental hygiene. There are gums to whiten teeth, clean teeth, and freshen breath.
Bubblegum is a type of chewing gum that is especially designed for blowing bubbles.
Composition and manufacture
The chewing gum is made of a "gum base" with added food coloring and flavoring. The exact composition of gum bases is usually an trade secret, but common ingrediences can be latexes (eg. leche, caspi, sorva, nispero, tunu, jelutong, or commercially still produced chicle), paraffin wax or beeswax, polyethylene, polyvinyl acetate, stearic acid, and various natural gums.
Old gum bases were based on latexes, vegetable gums like chicle, spruce gum, or mastic gum. Alternative choices were waxes, eg. paraffin wax and beeswax.
The approximate manufacturing methods are fairly constant between brands. The gum base is melted at a temperature of about 115 °C, until it has the viscosity of thick maple syrup, and filtered through a fine mesh screen. Then it is further refined by separating dissolved particulars in a centrifuge, and further filtered. Clear base, still hot and melted, is then put into mixing vats. Here are the other ingredients added: powdered sugar, whose amount and grain size determines the brittleness of the result, corn syrup and/or glucose which serve as humectants, coat the sugar particles and stabilize their suspension, and keep the gum flexible, various softeners, food colorings, flavorings, preservatives and other additives.
The homogenized mixture is then poured onto cooling belts, and cooled with cold air. Extrusion, optionally rolling and cutting, and other mechanical shaping operations follow. The chunks of gum are then put aside to set for 24 to 48 hours.
Coated chewing gums then undergo other operations: the chunks are wrapped with optional undercoating for better binding with outer layers, then immersed to eg. liquid sugar. The pellets are then colored, and coated with a suitable glazing agent, usually a wax.
Gum and society
Unusually for a confectionery, chewing gum has some health benefits; unsweetened (sugar free) chewing gum stimulates saliva production, and helps to clean the surface of the teeth, whilst even sugary gum may be helpful, as the sugar dissolves out very quickly. Chewing gum has also been identified with improving memory according to various studies. [1] The chewing process expends 12 calories per hour (14 watts) and chewing gum when travelling on an aircraft can counteract the irritation caused by changes in air pressure. [2] Gum containing the sugar xylitol can help counteract tooth decay.
When spat on the ground, chewing gum will stick firmly and can only be removed with great difficulty. For this reason, the sale of chewing gum has been prohibited in Singapore since 1992. [3] Recently, however, some types of chewing gum (e.g., nicotine replacement gums) have been allowed under strictly monitored distribution.
An old wives' tale states that chewing gum, if swallowed, may take up to seven years to become fully digested, and that swallowing gum could also result in the substance becoming lodged in the esophagus. This is untrue, and although chewing gum does resist complete digestion by the body, it is expelled like other foods, though relatively unchanged. There is also a very low, but real risk of gum becoming lodged inside the body. [4]
Popular brands
- Main article: List of chewing gum brands
