Chewing Gum Consultant

Professional Chewing gum industry meeting point

Stevia, Stevioside, Rebaudioside… and Chocotec 07/12/2012

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 2:01 PM
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Almost everything, but not all is chewing gum in this world… there is also chocolate! So this week I attended Chocotec, a symposium organized by ZDS in Cologne.

Of course both worlds have some common features and I’d like to mention now about the new trend: Stevia, or better I should say “Streviol Glycosides”. This family of intense sweeteners includes Rebaudioside A, B, C, D, E and F, and also Stevioside, Steviolbioside, Rubusoside and Dulcoside A. This group of molecules have been approved by EU with the number E960 as long as they contain at least 95% of Steviol glycosides and a minimum of 75% of Stevioside and/or Rebaudioside A.

The origin of all those ingredients is the plant “Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni” which was first cultivated in Paraguay. Nowadays the main source of this plant is China.

Important, the maximum level allowed in chewing gum is 3300 mg/kg of Steviolequivalents or 5500 mg/kg as Stevioglycosides. And it cannot be combined with sugar! EU Commission Directive 1131/2011

Also important that it cannot be labelled with sentences as “Natural Sweeetener Stevia” or “Stevia-extract”.

I heard rumours that most probably we will see chewing gums with this sweetener being launched in the market by next year 2013…

 

Tax on chewing gum 03/12/2012

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product,Research — Joan Mestres @ 9:33 PM
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A “deviation” form the issue of biodegradable chewing gum is the controversy about taxes applied to the product.

Some politicians claim that, as one can find chewing gum stuck everywhere on the streets, and this cost money to remove, then a tax should be imposed on the sale of gum. The money collected from this tax will be “supposedly” used to clean the streets. The issue was on the news some time ago in relation to Ireland and Wales. Now, two more news appeared recently with the same discussion, this time related to Mexico and Northern Ireland (see links from Confectionerynews.com below). As many of you may already know, Singapore is the only country where chewing gum is officially banned, except for those with health claims, which can be sold in pharmacies.

Wrigley is the strongest fighter against those policies and supports educational programs instead of taxes (which reach 50% on top of the retail price in case of Mexico!).

So I guess until nobody finds a successful biodegradable chewing gum (or should I say simply “degradable chewing gum”?), we will find these type of discussions here and there.

http://mobile.confectionerynews.com/Regulation-Safety/Chewing-gum-tax-proposed-in-Mexico

http://mobile.confectionerynews.com/Regulation-Safety/Chewing-gum-tax-calls-in-Northern-Ireland

 

New products in China and Korea 20/11/2012

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 2:31 PM
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Wasabi KitKat (Nestlé) or Cheese Chocolate (Meiji-Japan) are only some of the amazing developments that we find in the Far East. You can see them following this link

http://www.confectionerynews.com/Formulation/Asian-innovation-Wasabi-Kit-Kats-and-cheese-chocolate © 2012 – William Reed Business Media SAS

 

But in our field of chewing gum two novelties are being described in the website above: A bubble gum launched by Lotte, in Korea and the appearance of “Stride”, by Mondelez in China.

Both can be considered oddities. The former because bubble gum is usually not the field where the innovation efforts focus, the later because the presence of Mondelez in the huge Chinese market is almost inexistent. Chinese market is (according to Euromonitor 2011) dominated by Wrigley (ca. 40% market share in value), followed at the distance by Orion, Lotte and Perfetti (all within the 3 to 5% bracket). Then various local players have much smaller shares. We will follow very closely how the launching of  the “Stride” brand (already well-known in other countries) develops and if this really represents the disembark of Mondelez in the Chinese gum market.

 

Wrigley files a patent of fibre-containing chewing gum 03/10/2012

Filed under: New product,Research — Joan Mestres @ 10:35 AM
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Wrigley files a patent of fibre-containing chewing gum

I read in confectionerynews.com (see link attached) about this new patent that Wrigley has filed, claiming improved texture, flavour release and healthiness.

 

Next lectures 24/09/2012

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product,Production & Machinery,Research — Joan Mestres @ 9:06 PM
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During next weeks I will be giving presentations about Chewing gum technology in two well-recognized organizations.

The first will be ZDS, in Solingen/Germany, on 29th October. They have a four-week long Sugar Confectionery Course dealing with all what is around technologies in this field (candy, jelly, marshmallow, coating, …) and I will be glad to discuss for eight hours with the participants about different aspects of chewing gum. Participants come from all around the world. You can find out more in http://www.zds-solingen.de

The second one will be in Leatherhead, United Kingdom, on 8th November. Here there is also a Sugar Confectionery Course and I will take care of the chewing gum presentation. The web is http://www.leatherheadfood.com

I have been lecturing in both places for more than 10 years and I must say that it is one of the most enjoyable moments of the year for me. I always find interesting to exchange ideas and experiences with other people

 

Sweet Tec – ZDS 22/09/2012

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 12:08 PM
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Just back from Lindau – Germany, where I attended this year’s edition of Sweet Tec, organized by ZDS. Interesting presentations about coating and all what is around it (ingredients, technology, …) Not necessarily about chewing gum, but also. For me it was special because, after many years (since 1998 if i remember well) giving lectures in ZDS, this is the fist time that I talk about something which is not chewing gum. This time was about chewy candy technology, which of course has some points in common with chewing gum but it has also its specificities.
Besides the usual companies attending these seminars (Capol, Danisco -now DuPont-, Chocotech, Beneo-Palatinit, Roquette, AZO, Munters…) I found specially important to note the presence (with booth) of two companies offering Stevia. One of them is Cargill, the other is NP Sweet A/S. While the first is well-known, I was not aware of the second, which is a joint-venture between Nordzucker and PureCircle. This follows, and reinforces the trend of this new ingredient, at least in Europe (I posted something about it already in this blog). However, no chewing gum has been launched in the market yet. I could chew samples (lab scale) and they were very nice, so I’m sure we will see some chewing gum with Stevia in the near future.

 

Chewing Gum and Chewy Candy Combination 22/08/2012

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 4:02 PM
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The last trend launched into the market in terms of chewing gum format or presentation has been a co-extruded tab consisting on 3 layers of product. Kraft-Cadbury was the first to come with this innovation and named it “Trident Layers”. This is a sort of “sandwich” gum where the top and bottom layers are gum, and the middle layer is chewy candy with a different flavor. Really interesting mix! Then, the same company has launched the same concept under other brands that they own. For instance “Stride” in Japan and “Beldent” in Argentina. Other companies launched a similar product: Perfetti with the well-known “Mentos” brand and also “Vivident”. In this case, this company dared to go for three completely different layers, as you can see in the photo attached, each one with a different color and/or flavour. Recently Lotte, in Japan, joined the trend and launched “Zeus” gum. In this case they used a completely new brand and did not use any existing one (“BlackBlack”, “Xylitol”, “Green Gum”, etc…). “Zeus” gum has a really strong taste (the image on the packaging refers to a storm and lightning), whicb is quite unusual for the Japanese market, which usually prefers mild flavors. Let’s see how it performs in the market.

We will probably see other products in the market that use this innovative concept of mixing gum and chewy candy. And of course, this opens the door to other combinations…

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“New” product – Marijuana 20/08/2012

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 4:10 PM
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I received an article informing about a new chewing gum in the US. This time, the novelty that is announced is the active ingredient: Marijuana. According to the article it will be marketed Over-The-Counter, claiming health benefits.
What is more arguable is the declaration that this will be “the first cannabinoid based chewing gum to hit the market”… I have samples, bought in Amsterdam about 10 years ago that claim to contain marihuana as well. Of course, I have not analyzed to confirm if the claim is true, but in this case this “new” US product will not be the first one to be launched.

In any case, this development falls in the category of “functional gum”, added-value product, which tries to offer added benefits to the consumer.We find many launchings in this direction every year, which is a clear confirmation of this market trend.

http://www.confectionerynews.com/Markets/Medical-marijuana-chewing-gum-set-for-US-debut

 

 

 

 

New Product, more! 13/08/2012

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 2:49 PM
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Some days ago I was mentioning an interesting product from Wrigley in Australia. Today it is Cadbury’s turn, and they have a new product in the US named “ID“. This gum, targeted to teenagers has two main characteristics: The first is a printed surface with different designs (there are some products in the market with this feature but none of them has been launched recently). The second interesting characteristic is a packaging with a magnet in the sleeve so it can be properly closed.

I attach below a link where you can read more about this product:

http://www.just-food.com/news/kraft-looks-to-boost-gum-sales-with-new-brand_id119104.aspx

and this one that discusses about this product and some other novelties in the chewing gum market:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/story/2012-05-04/wacky-chewing-gum/54818846/1

 

 

New Product from Australia 11/08/2012

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 12:20 PM
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The other day I came across this interesting product from Wrigley Australia. They are the classical gum tabs in a multipack, but what is interesting are the two stripes placed on the top of the piece. It seems to be a coextruded product but in this case they are not blending two types of gum with different flavours or colors (which is the most typical case when coextruding) but they are using instead these two stripes of powder. It comes under the umbrella of “EXTRA” brand and there is a different flavour range. I tasted the powder and it does not seem to me to contain xylitol (no big cooling effect), so I think that it might be some isomalt with some flavor (?), just a guess. I do not know how long this has been in the market for, so it might not be a really new product, but in any case for sure it is worth mentioning.