Rock in Gum

There is rock in your chewing gum!

The basic process for manufacturing chewing gum has the following steps:

Kneading the ingredients together.

Heating the mix, usually to a temperature of about 50 degrees Celsius.

Extrusion and rolling, in which the paste is turned into a long strip that is the right size and shape.

The strip is then cut into sticks or pieces of gum.

The hot strip of extruded gum is very sticky so to prevent it sticking to the machinery or to its wrapper, the strip is dusted on both sides with an anti-caking agent such as talc or calcium carbonate. This white dust absorb oils and moisture. It is why you can remove gum from its wrapper so easily.

Talc and calcium carbonate are both minerals that have a wide range of uses.

Talc is the softest known mineral which makes it useful in a wide range of consumer and industrial products, such as cosmetics, baby powder, paint, paper, lubricants, ceramics, rubber, plastics and foods.

Calcium carbonate is in the shells and bones of many marine organisms. When these animals die, their shells and skeletal debris accumulate as sediment at the bottom of bodies of water and are eventually turned into rock (limestone, chalk and marble) by heat and pressure. Calcium carbonate is used in things like cement, paper, plastics, paint, agricultural lime, mortar, baking powder, dough, dessert mixes and dietary supplements.

Mining contributes to everything in your daily life – often in ways you would never have imagined!

Photo Credit: Sherman Trotz