Bubble Gum is everyone's favorite candy. The only candy that you can't swallow. It was called bubble gum as it can inflate out of the mouth in a bubble form. Whether it is because of the flavor, the chewy sensation, or a boredom escape, bubble gum is always becoming the number one choice among other candies. It has a soft texture that helps people reduce stress and nervousness by chewing it. The movement and motion of the mouth while chewing the bubble gum can replace the pressures on the human brain.
Bubble gum needs a gum base to make it chewy and bubble-ish. As the name, the gum base is a base ingredient in making bubble gum.
What's Gum Base?
Gum base is a base ingredient of bubble gum that can give flavor and a chewy texture to bubble gum. The gum base does not contain nutrition and cannot dissolve in water. The safety of the gum base itself has been questioned for decades. There are a lot of issues saying that gum base consists of dangerous ingredients. What is actually inside it? Is it safe and edible? To answer that question, we need to understand the solution of gum base first.
The gum base solution consists of antioxidants, a plasticizer, an emulsifier, a filler, and a wax layer that significantly affects the gum's texture.
- Antioxidants run to give a long-expired date to the gum. They also function to protect the flavor and color. Besides the preservative function, antioxidants also work in scavenging free radicals. The most used antioxidants in the gum industry are Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), both of which passed the food-grade safety test by the FDA.
- Plasticizers, we can also say the softener or plasticizing agents that weigh 0.5% - 15% of the bubblegum itself. Plasticizers are made of glycerine and lecithin that have already passed the food-grade safety test. It gives a chewy texture to bubble gum, supported by the filler. The gum base has some components that are not bound to each other, then the plasticizer work to emulsify them. In the old days, vegetable oil also worked as a plasticizer of natural-based bubble gum.
- Gum base filler is the one that makes the bubble gum chewier when we chew them longer. That usually made of calcium carbonate or talc.
- The last one is the wax layer. This wax covers and protects the gum to make it insoluble. The wax also functions as the softening agent, usually paraffin or microcrystalline wax. Several different options of wax can be used in a gum base. In 1848, there was an innovation to use beeswax in a gum base, resulting in a chewy and sweeter gum.
- The manufacturer mixes the gum base with more ingredients like glycerol, calcium carbonate, talc, lecithin, and dan bee wax to make bubble gum. They can also add some more elements as the innovation.
![What's Gum Base?]( "What's Gum Base?")
Now we know what is inside the gum base, the next question is, is it safe? Let's see what the authorities say. So far, we know that the gum base has passed the food grade test. It has been proven that gum base does not trigger adverse effects on the body and is not carcinogenic but can lead to cancer. So, bubble gum and gum base are 100% safe to consume if they pass the food grade certification like FDA, The Food Chemicals Codex Specifications, or other similar certifications.
As a consumer who is not familiar with food chemicals, the best thing to do is always check the food label and see if they are registered to sell and distribute their products. They use a safe gum base as long as they have the registration.
Chewing Gum in Business
The invention of chewing gum has opened many business opportunities. According to the market sales of chewing gum, it looks like an excellent idea to be involved in this industry as chewing gum has a prospective business market both global and regional.
First of all, let's see the market status and trend of the chewing gum market recently. Then we can continue to analyze the market characteristic, segmentation, competitors, size and growth, market shares, and any other breakdown before finally determining the business strategy.
Unlike other candies, chewing gum has health value to bring more market. Sure, there will be a direct impact between the gum and the health industry, resulting in increased sales. This condition has opened a larger market for gums that are not limited by younger age only.
Talking about numbers, Taiwan News has predicted a considerable inclination of the gum base or chewing gum market in Asia-Pacific during 20201-2027.
Bring Innovation to Your Chewing Gum and Bubble Gum Business
To start your gum business, you need innovation. There are a lot of different innovations in this business, but they always use the same ingredient, gum base. So, with the same gum base, you can explore your creativity as much as possible. A significant gum and gum base market growth also means many competitors. Get your gum base and start to innovate.
Here we give you some chewing gum innovations that we have liked. We hope this will provide you with whole new fresh ideas.
Gum base for innovative coating gum.
The easiest thing to start with your gum business is to innovate with the coating. You need a high-quality gum base, and then be creative with the coats. Play with different flavors and different colors of your brand-new gum.
Gum base for niche gum
If ordinary gum is already too much in this industry, start to think of something niche. Most gums contain sugar; maybe less-sugared gum will be a perfect niche. It also works for natural gum, vegan, or gluten-free.
Gum base for functioning gum
Chewing gum can also be innovated by its function. So far, there are a lot of gums with different tasks like gum for dental care and dental whitening, nicotine gum, mouth refreshing gum, sleep gum, focus gum, weight reducing gum, and energy gum.
Author: Wuxi Gum Base
Publication Date: 4/2/2022
