How are Chewing and Bubble Gum Made?
Every type and brand of gum has a specific formula. The ingredients are cooked in large steam jacketed kettles at high temperatures until it is as thick as maple syrup. Then the liquid mixture passes through filters while it maintains heat. First, it is filtered through mesh screens and then moves to vacuum strainers. After that, the liquid mix is poured into a machine with slow revolving blades. Here sugar, corn syrup and flavoring are added to sugar gums. For sugarless gum, sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol or other sweeteners are added instead of sugar. The liquid mix now moves to a cooler, which will drop the temperature of the mix and get it ready for the extruder machine. This machine will manipulate the texture of the gum. After that it goes to rollers where it is flattened. The thinnest sheets make stick gum. The thicker sheets make candy-coated gum. The stick gum goes to high-power machines to be wrapped, but the candy-coated gum needs more work. Candy-coated gum is cut into pellet
