According to Wrigley, half of all Americans chew gum, with an average annual consumption of about 170 pieces per person. Wrigley gum has been around for over 100 years, but even ancient Greeks chewed mastic, a precursor to modern chewing gum. Today's gum has few ingredients, but each one is a vital component to the chew.
Gum Base
When the flavor in your gum fades away, it's because the sweeteners and the flavor additives have dissolved and been swallowed. The part that remains is gum base, which makes up the bulk of the gum and gives the manufacturer something to mix everything else into. Wrigley uses a synthetic gum base, made of elastomers that make the gum stretchy, plasticizers that keep the gum soft and antioxidants that keep the gum from spoiling.
Softeners/Bulking Agents
Wrigley adds glycerin to further ensure the gum's softness, as well as mannitol and sorbitol to give it the proper consistency. Mannitol and sorbitol are sugar alcohols -- sorbitol comes from sucrose, and mannitol comes from mannose. Sorbitol is found in fruits and vegetables and is also made from corn syrup. Though mannitol is extracted from seaweed for food-manufacturing purposes, it is naturally found in asparagus, carrots, sweet potatoes and pineapples.
Sweeteners
Wrigley makes gum with or without sugar. The sugar-sweetened gums contain cane sugar, corn syrup and beet sugar, and the sugar-free varieties contain many of the synthetic artificial sweeteners you might stir into your coffee. Xylitol, aspartame, sucralose and acesulfame K provide the sweetness of sugar without adding calories or promoting tooth decay.
Flavoring/Coloring
Wrigley's best-selling gums are their mint varieties, and it takes about 53 square miles of farmland to grow enough mint to make it. The mint flavor is extracted from the fresh mint plant by way of distillation, and the resulting oil is used to flavor the gum. Fruit-flavored varieties use a variety of fruit essences, which are simply the volatile aromatic compounds extracted from the fruit itself or created synthetically.
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