Getting ready one more year to go to Cologne and visit ISM and Prosweets. i will inform you, as usual, about the novelties I find there. I invite you to visit older posts in this blog to find the different reports about different brands and products that I found in 2013 and 12014.
Tasty chewing gum that prevents tooth decay for impoverished children around the world.
A good initiative with chewing gum!
5 students of the University of Pennsylvania founded Sweet Bites Gum some time ago. The company aims to support the dental health of children in areas where there is not the required infrastructure. They are focusing for the time being in India and launched the project in Bangalore (although planning to expand to other areas like the Phillippines as well). They are distributing xylitol gum (50.000 pieces so far!) among the children in these communities. The wrapper of the gum includes a text with a message reinforcing good habits related to oral care.
They are trying to scale up their activities by means of crowfunding. I invite you to check their website and learn more about this exceptional project, which is competing for the Hulk Price for Social entrepreneurship.
This is the web site;
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sweet-bites-cavity-fighting-xylitol-gum
Some days ago I came across this interesting functional gum, which uses the well-known Bach flower remedies in chewing gum format.
It illustrates what I have been mentioning several times in this web-site, which is the importance of functional gums. The growth in this category has been a fact since a few years and all gum producers should consider this segment in a very serious way in case they are not doing it yet.
In this example, the company LemonPharma (headquartered in Germany) offers 3 different versions of chewing gum:
1- For emergencies
2- Energy
3- Concentration
4- Self-Confidence
The product is presented in plastic bottles containing 60 g (approx. 40 units) of coated pillows. They have a nice crunch and chew. They do not contain aspartame and are produced only with xylitol as sweetener.
I leave you here the link to the web-site of the company for those of you who want more info: www.lemonpharma.com
Let me write today about a very special company: “Project 7”.
What makes them special is their mission, which is summarized in the company’s motto: “Products for good!”. Project 7 was founded in 2008 in the US and it is trying to make a difference in the world since then. They support 7 needs (health, environment, housing, hunger, thirst, education and peace) and the purchases of their products go directly to support one of them, by co-operating with different NGO and associations. More in particular, each purchase provides funds to projects evolving planting trees, provide shelter for those affected by natural disasters, provide meals, bring drinking water to those in need, deliver anti-malaria medications, give education to children in developing nations and support anti-bullying programs in US schools.
The company has grown amazingly since 2008 and now they are present in many shops and department stores. Some of their retail partners are: American Airlines, Walgreens, Safeway, Sixflags,.. They have appeared in the news and articles extensively as well.
The offer contains gum and mints but here we are interested about their gum, which comes in six appealing flavors: Birthday cake, coconut lime, fresh & breezy, front porch lemonade, mint julep and peppermint vanilla. It has been awarded the “Most Innovative New Product” at the 2014 “Sweets & Snacks Expo” in Chicago.
I invite you to learn more about them by checking the website: www.project7.com
Today I want to talk about a functional gum. You know I have special interest on all these gums that provide some added benefits, so I am eager to taste and to talk about them.
Vitamingum® , from the USA, comes in two different versions:
– VITAMINGUM Fresh. This product is packed in blisters with 12 coated pillows each. It comes in three flavors (cinnamon, spearmint and peppermint) and contains 12 vitamins (!). They make up to 10% of the Recommended Daily Value (RDV) per serving. The vitamins are A, C, D, E and a range of Bs, plus folic acid and BiotinThe taste has good lasting and the chew is nice.
-VITAMINGUM Sport. This one comes in hollow balls packed in flow pack (each pack contains 4 balls) or in pouches containing 18 balls. There are three different flavors (grape, raspberry and bubble gum). The chew is surprisingly soft for a hollow ball and the cud volume is really big. It contains 25% of the RDV of the same vitamins as Vitamingum, so it is the “stronger version” of the former. In theory, by chewing only 4 of these balls per day, we can get the level of vitamins that is recommended.
Both products use Sucralose and Neotame as sweeteners and, in fact, use the claim of being “Aspartame free”.
It has been in the market for some time already, so it not really a new launching, but it is, anyway, a good example of how to make good functional products.
The product is based on a patent and sold by the company Vitaball, Inc. from Kentucky, and you can learn more in their website: www.chewvitamingum.com
Confectionerynews.com published recently about a new type of gum developed by the Danish company FERTIN PHARMA.
It is called “Vision gum” and it contains Lutein, zinc and vitamins A, B2 and E. The gum was presented during the Vitafoods exhibition fair that took place in Geneva (Switzerland) from 6th until 8th May.
The company wants to be very careful bout the claims associated with this chewing gum, and states that it “helps maintain good vision” but in any case “cures bad vision”.
I must say that, as far as I know, it is the first chewing gum going in the direction of “healthy vision”. There are and have been gums in the market with vitamins (Vitamin C is the most popular but there are products with A, E and others as well), but it is the first one that combines the vitamins with Lutein. So it is good to see the range of functional gums expanding.
I attach here the link to the article in case you want to read more about it. Vision gum
The other day I came across “Simply Gum”, and I thought it would be good to mention it here.
This product claims to be the only 100% natural gum in the USA. It contains: Natural chicle, organic dried cane juice, organic vegetable glycerin, organic sunflower lecithin, organic rice flour and natural flavor.
You can learn more in their web-site: www.simplygum.com
But they are also present in Facebook: www.facebook.com/SimplyGum
and in Twitter: www.twitter.com/SimplyGum
And here are a couple of links to other websites that mention the product: Kickstarter, Examiner, Ecofriendlyusa.
It comes originally in cinnamon flavor but it seems that they are expanding the range to licorice and ginger.
We can find more and more of these products that claim organic/natural/bio/… which is a clear trend in our society. They still take a very tiny share of the market due to different reasons: Sometimes quality, sometimes limited marketing (and financial) power in front of the big guys, sometimes the consumer is not aware (or is not ready to pay more, or finds it difficult to find, …). It will be interesting to see the evolution of such brands in the near future.
Not really big novelties this year for this Spanish company, with branch in Brazil.
Last year I mentioned very nice gum balls resembling tennis balls. They were in yellow (tradition color for a real tennis ball) and pink. This year they expanded the range to orange, green and blue balls. Very nice! i like them.
Last year I mentioned (and posted pictures) the Tube gum and the Tape gum that this French company is producing but here you have the spaghetti gum, with the brand “Bubblizz” which has fizzy effect.
The Swiss company was not presenting big launches this year. The most relevant is a Limited edition of their SKAI brand (sugar free drags packed in zip-bags) with “Chai Latte” flavor.
Then, CHOCOLAT FREY is giving a boost to their SMAJL brand with three different flavors: “Sweet Mint”, “Eucamenthol”, and “Dental” (with micro granules). They all claim the fact that the product does not contain aspartame.
Chewing Gum Consultant 