Gum Source
Where does natural gum come from?
1. Sapodilla trees
• Chicle is produced commercially from the sap of the red and white Sapodilla tree that grows in the rain forests of Central and South America.
• These trees grow in the Yucatan Peninsula and reach heights of 100 feet or more, and develop with great hardness and density.
• The Sapodillas (Achras Sapota) are tapped for their latex after they are 20 to 25 years old.
• Each tapping, is made with a series of cross cuts - in the form of a herringbone - leads to a center channel yielding only 2 1/2 pounds of gum over a period of six hours.
• Trees are tapped only once in three or four years.
2. Spruce trees
• Natural form of gum-like resin is obtained by cutting the bark of spruce trees.
• Spruce gum was replaced gradually by paraffin wax gum.
3. Other trees
• Other trees also contribute their latex to the chewing gum industry.
• Some of the latex used are leche, caspi and sorva, found in the Amazon Valley; nispero and tunu, from Central America; and jelutong, found in Indonesia, Malaya, and British Borneo. Rosin, from pine trees found in the southeastern and southern parts of the United States, is also used to enhance the texture of the gum base.
4. Paraffin gum
• Paraffin gum requires the heat and moisture of the mouth to render it suitable for chewing, and was therefore replaced as a base of all "regular" gums by other substances.
• Sweetened and flavored paraffin wax is still used in the production of novelty chewing products.
• Refined paraffin waxes are also used as ingredients of chewing gum bases.
Modern Chewing gum
• Modern chewing gum products appeared in 1869.
• Gum made with chicle and similar latexes became more popular than spruce gum or paraffin gum. Chicle-base chewing gum was smoother, softer and held its flavor better than any previous type of chewing gum.
• By the 1900s chewing gum was manufactured in many different shapes and sizes (long pencil-shaped sticks, ball form, flat sticks and blocks) and flavors (peppermint, fruit and spearmint).
• Today, synthetic materials replace natural gum ingredients to create a chewing gum with better quality, texture and taste.
• Although chicle and other natural gums are still utilized by the chewing gum industry, because of ever-increasing demand, are being extended by man-made materials.
• The man-made materials have proven beneficial in providing the high consistency of chewing quality that the industry prides itself in.
• Corn syrup, sugar, and flavoring agents are later added to the gum base in the gum-making process. These agents are of the highest quality, produced under spotless, rigidly controlled laboratory conditions.
• In more recent times, sugar free sweeteners have been added to the process to provide an even greater variety of product offering.
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