The news of the day is that next edition of ISM will take place, instead of last weekend in January as it has always been, on 23-25th April 2023.
I personally do not understand the reasons given by the organization, which mentions the current exceptional situation regarding availability raw materials, logistic pressures, increasing prices, etc… I do not know how postponing the exhibition from January to April will make any difference…. but probably I am missing some bit of information..
This last ISM I discovered a company that is producing chewing gum in Turkey named Helikon Gida, however they advertise and appear under their brand name “NUNU”. The company is expert in tableting technology and the main products are compressed candies (see their website https://www.helikon.com.tr/). Surprisingly , the compressed chewing gum does not appear in the website, although I have samples of “Nunu Ciklet”, which claims to be Aspartame Free and sweetened with Stevia. It comes in zip pack pouches with 15 pieces inside and different flavours. The ones I have are with Mastic (very popular in Turkey) and another with Tutti Frutti. Thanks to Mr Yasar Acar for his time and explanations.
When we talk about functional gum, one of the companies that offers a wider range of products is NTP Biotech, based on Italy. I visited their stand and thank Mr Pietro Porrini for his time.
This company produces gum by compression/tabletting and the results are excellent. They are specialists on the addition of functional ingredients in the formulation and I was surprised by the number of functionalities that they cover. The reason for that, is that the company is part of the group Sintal dietetics, specialist in food supplements (not only in gum, for which they have the brand GUMD’E) but also in capsules, liquid drops and other presentations. I already mentioned them in a post back in 2018 that you can find here.
NTP Biotech is open to private label production.
I got samples of the following chewing gums:
In this type of product, obtaining a proper taste is a difficult task, because of the unpleasant taste of some of the active ingredients (typical example is the Caffeine in energy gum). So when this is achieved, the task of the formulating team must be praised!
A clear trend in recent years has been the use of natural gum base, from sapodilla trees in Mexico. Different companies have launched chewing gums formulated using only natural ingredients. The gum base is one of them but also the flavours and sweeteners are natural. Some of them use the claim “plastic free”.
I have talked in this website about natural gums in the past (The Humble, Endoca, Two Wise Chimps, BenBits, Simply gum, Chewsy,…) , so this is not new to us. I just want to introduce here three companies that were exhibiting in ISM:
TRUE GUM www.truegum.com
FOREST GUM www.forestgum.de
TREE GUM www.treegum.ch
Only the first one has the website in English. “True gum” has been in the market for quite a few years now and can be found in many supermarkets around Europe. Recently, it became part of The Humble group, a Swedish company that specializes in Oral Care products (not only gum) and offers its own natural gum as well.
Recently, we see also the well-known brand STIMOROL, by the giant Mondelez, also offering a natural version. This is available only in Denmark and Switzerland and it comes with 2 different flavours (Spearmint&Eucalyptus and Lemon&Ginger). I find quite interesting that one of the big names in the chewing gum industry has decided to take this way as well. Let’s see how this works in the market and… let’s see if other big names (Mars/Wrigley, Perfetti Van Melle, Lotte,…) decide to follow in the near future.
As this is a clear growing market segment, I wonder if the supply of natural gum base from the trees will be enough to cover the demand!!
When we talk about functional gum, we must mention the PROBIOTIC launched by the Spanish company CHICKLES. I was amazed to discover it in ISM. I thank Mr Samuel Bonete for his detailed explanation at their stand. Developing a probiotic gum is something different from any other functional gum that we can find in the market, it is disruptive.
The gum contains Bifidobacterium Lactis (BFL1) and claims to reduce weight (it focuses on the waist in particular). In fact the well-documented website https://chicklesgum.com/en/chickles-gum-slimfit/ contains scientific evidence to support this claim. I invite you to visit it and learn about the properties of this innovative chewing gum.
ISM is always a good source of information and novelties. This year the event has been smaller and less crowded than in the past, due to Covid19, but at least we were able to meet again in person after a long time and see that many companies are very active and that the chewing gum industry is evolving. I will post during next days about some concepts/products/news that I saw in Köln.
The first one is “GoBeDo” a chewing gum containing Chitosan and Zinc, claiming to boost immunity. It comes in a 9-piece blister with carton sleeve with peppermint flavour. For sure, during this pandemic consumers are more aware of certain healthy claims and are searching for products helping to enhance protection of the body and overall wellness. Immunity, of course is a big issue and this gum fits perfectly well into that request from the market.
Here you can find more: GoBeDo
Another of the big trends nowadays, not only when talking about chewing gum, but also in the food industry and even further, is the “natural” claim.
In ISM’20 I found CHEWSY (www.chewsygum.com). Thus gum in produced in China by a UK-based company. It claims that contains only xylitol as sweetener (no sugar, no aspartame) and that it is made using natural gum base (“plastic-free gum base” as they define it). I have some personal issues though, accepting the claim of “biodegradable”. The fact of being natural does not bring automatically the biodegradability. But it would be great if the product really degrades after some short period of time. Please allow me to be a bit skeptical on this matter because the products that have been launched in the market with this claim, have not really succeeded, for one reason or the other.
In any case, good proposal that deserves to be followed, which I will do with interest.
Last ISM Fair in Cologne I had the chance to meet the founders of the French company ONE GUM. This company commercializes a tabletted (compressed) chewing gum containing Vitamins B3, B6, B12 and Caffeine (50mg per piece). The interesting feature of this product is that it is made of two layers: One of the layers contains the caffeine, which is separated from the other layer that contains the gum and the vitamins B. This allows a faster absortion of the caffeine because it is not trapped in the gum structure.
This is produced in Denmark using patented technology. Other functional gums in the market use the double-layer feature, which has advantages not only related to the release of the active ingredients, but also related to the manufacture of the product itself.
You can learn more about it at www.onegum.eu
Another interesting company that exhibits in ISM for the second time is the Turkish “CEREMONY”.
They present sugarfree chewing gums with a very stylish and modern desing. Their main brand is “ 7 STICK” and also “CHIVITO”.
This new gum uses no aspartame, so it follows the trend of “clean label”, trying to avoid ingredients than may have a bad image in the general public. Maybe one day I should write a post about aspartame collecting all the data (positive and negative) that has been published about this intensive sweetener… and then another one about Stevia, which is quite an interesting case!
Congratulations to CEREMONY for the goodlooking product they have!
This new player in the Iranian chewing gum scene is the first time that exhibits in ISM. They produce different brands of chewing gum: Biodent, Nature Dent, Action.
The presentations are also diverse (dragees in fliptop box or ministicks in multipack), as the range of flavors, including some really excetional like “mojito”, “camomile”, “walnut oil” and “frankincense”!
Following my post from yesterday, I’d like to mention the “Nature Dent” brand, which claims to contain natural gum base (it is not clear to me what they mean by this) and no atificial flavors and colors, no aspartame or sucralose. No additives or preservatives and GMO Free. The gum base is “of course biodegradable”, which is very interesting. So the product is claimed to be 100% natural and organic.
This follows the trend already mentioned of “clean label”. More and more consumers worldwide don’t like to have those “weird” names of ingredients written the label of the product (antioxidant, artificial sweetener, …) and the manufacturers, of course, need to adapt their products to this demand.
Diffeent varieties of Nature Dent also claim to “improve your memory”.
“Action” brand turns around the idea of Energy, Excitement and Dynamism.
“Biodent” is the widest brand, sugarfree and with many flavors and packagings. There are two sub-brands named “Stardent” and “Vitadent” and all them claim oral care properties. The presentation of those products is really impressive, with a very smart design and bright colors. Special mention to the printing in Braile in the “Biodent mojito”
Chewing Gum Consultant 