When eating chewing gum (chewing gum), there will definitely be a state, that is, the mouth continues to chew and cannot stop, which has become an interesting clue for us to speculate whether others are eating gum, but why is it that eating gum is chewing non-stop, and when it is eaten to the end, it will have no taste, and it will spit out the gum? We all know that chewing gum can't swallow the stomach, but what exactly is chewed gum made of? And how is it made?
Originally, chewing gum is a natural gum or synthetic rubber, and is finished by mixing sugar or sweeteners, softeners, flavors, colors, etc.!
So it turns out we're all eating rubber? A hearing gum and rubber is probably surprising, but don't be nervous, gum as the name suggests comes from trees, and people chew gum is not now, according to Taiwan LiulanXiang Co., Ltd. to explore the origin of gum, as early as a few centuries ago, ancient Greeks have chewed frankincense tree resin records, when it was used to clean teeth, clear breath and other uses, and now we eat gum, is from the 1860s was introduced to the United States sugar gum evolution. The raw material of early gum gum, gum gum, came from a kind of latex called the heart fruit tree in Central America, and because the amount of natural gum could not supply a large amount of flavor gum, the main base of the gum now was "gum base", mostly based on synthetic rubber.
Chewing gum is a food made from natural gum or synthetic rubber by mixing sugar or sweeteners, softeners, flavors, colors and other raw materials.
The gum base is the chewing body in the chewing gum, that is, natural or synthetic rubber, synthetic rubber is made through the combination of polymers, the use of natural gum raw materials plus synthetic substances such as polyvinyl acetate, butadiene styrene rubber, edible wax and softeners and other combinations of synthetic rubber. The rubber-based raw material, before it has not been processed into a fragrant gum, is still just a seemingly ordinary synthetic rubber, and then after the post-production process, it will be more formed.
The gum base needs to be flavored by adding sweeteners, spices, etc. After the completion of the rubber-based raw materials, it must first be dissolved before processing to increase the aroma, taste and soft and hard taste, etc., the main production process can be divided into dissolving filtration, seasoning and stirring, rolling, cutting, standing and aging and other steps.
First of all, the raw material rubber base is heated to dissolve and filter the impurities again, and after the filtration is completed, sugar or sweetener is added to make the gum sweet, and the practice of adding sugar or sweetener is in accordance with the properties of the gum, such as sugar-free gum will replace the sugar with a sweetener. In addition, the addition of softeners such as glycerin, etc., so that the gum base can be softer and establish a more chewy taste, and the most important chewing gum taste when chewing, such as mint, strawberry and grapes and other flavors, is the credit of spices and pigments, so that the gum has different colors and tastes. When the above ingredients are added to the rubber base, it will be continuously stirred by the machine until they are fused with each other, and then rolled into a thin and long glue mass by the drum machine, which is getting closer and closer to the fragrant gum we imagine.
We often eat the shape of the chewing gum, mainly flakes and granular chewing gum, these two have undergone different shaping processes: (according to the picture)
After the flake gum is machine-rolled, it is cut to cut the thin and long glue balls into sheets.
And spray powdered sweetener or powdered sugar on the surface to prevent the gum from sticking to each other, let stand and wait for cooling before completing the flake gum.
The grainy gum with a sugar-coated appearance is molded into a granular form by pressing a thin long glue mass and cutting it into a plate-sized glue ball length to facilitate post-production.
Wait for the glue mass to cool down and form, and then the plate type of glue can be broken by the machine to separate the single grain shape.
After separation, the chewing gum will then be sprayed with syrup coated by the machine, and then repeatedly carried out after the appearance solidifies, so that each chewing gum can be evenly coated with sugar coating, and at the same time make the sugar coating have thickness.
Finally, the outermost layer is sprayed with pigmented syrup or flavor for coloring, and the granular chewing gum is completed after waiting for it to solidify and stand.
As for the bubble gum gum that can be blown out of the bubble shape while chewing, it is the result of the different proportions of the compound in the gum base, in order to have the properties of the adhesive film that can blow out the bubbles, the composition content of the synthetic rubber polymer is relatively high. Today's chewing gum, gum-based components are mostly synthetic rubber, gum base is insoluble in water substance, so eating gum, in addition to the taste is actually to eat the sweetness of it, let the saliva secretion and dissolve the sugar, sweetener and spices in the gum, etc., naturally eat the gum is gradually tasteless.
After understanding the production process and evolution of the gum, perhaps the next time you send the gum to your mouth to chew, you can imagine the situation of the ancestors chewing the frankincense tree resin centuries ago, and you may also feel a smile!