Chewing Gum Consultant

Professional Chewing gum industry meeting point

Fleer – Spain 04/04/2024

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 10:17 AM
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I already talked about this company (founded Spanish but now under the American Tootsie Roll) in this blog.

What I find interesting is the broad range of products that they cover:

  • Chewing gum dragees under the brand CLIX. 12 flavours. Presented in individual flow packs and also in zipbags with 30 pieces each
  • Chewing gum sticks: 4 flavours, also under the brand CLIX
  • Functional chewing gum, CLIX PRO with vitamins and ginseng
  • Bubble gum chunks (cut&wrap) under the brand DUBBLE BUBBLE, one of the historical brands in the chewing gum industry. There is one side brand which is sugrafree, quite unusual for a bubble gum for children. Another line extension offers the pieces in the shape of a bear and still another is a tongue painter.
  • Bubble gum balls and melons

So this covers different formats, flavours and target markets.

They also launched a line of Cotton candy (“FLUFFY STUFF”), which is not gum but this could be a new development for the future, although the production of cotton candy gum is a real challenge!

www.fleer.es

 

ISM 2015 11/02/2015

Filed under: Market & Fairs — Joan Mestres @ 5:09 PM
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Back from this year’s ISM (and Prosweets) exhibition in Cologne / Germany.

I repeat myself when I say that this fair seems smaller and smaller every year, so I will not insist on this. It is still an impressive show and a very interesting meeting point for the confectionery industry. I have seen a few novelties (not many because most the companies I visited were not really presenting anything new) which i will be talking about during next posts.

 

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…