Gum growth guaranteed

Moves to add functional ingredients, such as probiotics, to chewing gum will drive demand for dry powder-based tableted chewing gums in 2007, according to gum base supplier Cafosa.

Speaking at the Beauty from the Inside Out conference organised by Leatherhead Food International (LFI), Cafosa area manager Joan Mestres said: "The technology to make tableted gums has been around for several years, but we're starting to get more interest now as manufacturers want to make gums with moisture- or temperature-sensitive bioactive ingredients, such as live bacteria or vitamins, that can be damaged using traditional processing techniques.

"Directly compressible powder gum is easy to use: you simply stir your flavours, vitamins, and other active ingredients into the dry base mix, which contains sugar or sweeteners, and then compress the lot. When you eat the gum, it is as chewy as standard gum."

He added: "Tableted gum also releases active ingredients more quickly from your mouth or throat into the bloodstream, rather than going right through the digestive system, so you can use less."

Japan is the biggest market for functional chewing gum, with a constant stream of new releases from major players such as Kanebo and Lotte, from gums that reduce motion sickness to others that whiten teeth, hyaluronan- and vitamin C-enriched gum, gum that makes the skin smell fragrant, gums laced with caffeine, ginseng, Echinacea and CoQ10, and gums claiming to boost skin health with active ingredients such as aloe vera and betacarotene, said Mestres.

Wrigley is also looking to cash in. It plans to develop a gum containing metal salts, zinc and copper on a fresh breath platform.

Meanwhile, German chemicals giant BASF is also working on a raft of new products containing friendly bacteria that are expected to launch this year, including a new gum claiming to significantly reduce the amount of Strepptococcus mutans, which causes tooth decay, present in the mouth.