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All Chewing Gum has the same basic ingredients (although each company carefully guards their recipes):

# Gum base- The main ingredient that make your gum 'chewable'. The gum base can be derived from natural resins such as sorva and jelutong but most companies use synthetic gum base materials which allow for longer-lasting flavor and improved texture # Softeners -such as glycerin, vegetable oil and rosin (from pine trees grown in the southern U.S) are added to retain moisture. Rosin is also used as a glazing agent on some gum. # Sweeteners - sugar, corn syrup and even beet juice are added to gum to give it that sweet flavor. In sugar-free gum artificial sweeteners such as sorbitol and Aspartame are used. # Flavorings- Mint flavoring almost always comes from the mint plant, while other flavors are synthetically created and perfected in the lab (how else would you find pina colada, cotton candy and blue melon fusion condensed into a tiny white square?). The amount of each ingredient added to the mix depends on the type of gum being made. Bubble gum contains more of the gum base and softener, so that your bubbles stay moist and don't burst…especially during a lecture! Gum manufacturers all share the same basic process to reach their finished product. Preparation of the gum base at the factory, the lengthiest step, requires that the raw gum materials be melted down and sterilized in a steam cooker. Once this is complete, the substance is then pumped to a high-powered centrifuge to rid the gum base of undesirable dirt and bark. After cleaning, the melted gum base is mixed : approximately 20% of the base with 63% sugar, 16% corn syrup, and 1% flavoring oils, such as peppermint, cinnamon, or artificial flavorings. Next the warm mixture is run between pairs of rollers, which are coated on both sides with powdered sugar, to prevent the resulting ribbon of gum from sticking. The final pair of rollers comes fully equipped with knives, which snip the ribbon into sticks or squares. For chewing gum, each stick gets individually wrapped by a machine and placed into boxes. Other gums have flavoring, exterior coatings, or liquids added to each piece. (see related manufacturing link)

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16y ago

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