Most chewing gum is made from petrochemicals.
We find that a lot of customers are surprised to learn that regular chewing gum contains plastic. And it makes sense why they would be unaware – the manufacturers of these synthetic chewing gums don’t want you to think about what you’re putting in your mouth.
When you check the ingredients on the back of a packet of ordinary chewing gum, you’ll probably see something listed call ‘gum base’. This sounds innocuous enough, right?
Wrong.
Although historically gum base was made using natural ingredients, today the term ‘gum base’ is used to hide a range of plastics, rubbers, and waxes that you could be chewing on, such as:
- Butadiene-styrene rubber
- Isobutylene-isoprene copolymer (butyl rubber)
- Paraffin (via the Fischer-Tropsch process)
- Petroleum wax Petroleum wax synthetic
- Polyethylene Polyvinyl acetate
It’s unnerving to think about all that going into our bodies. But it’s also an issue of what we’re putting into the environment. Chewing gum is the second most littered thing in the world. A big reason for that is that many people don’t realise the thing they’re spitting out won’t simply decompose. It can take 500 years for a piece of plastic-based chewing gum to completely break down.
At Australian Food and Pharmaceutical Industries, we’re proud to offer a natural alternative. Our Mast Chew and Mast Chew ZERO chewing gum is made from the resin of the pistacia tree (aka ‘mastic gum’). This means our chewing gum is completely biodegradable. It is also safe for you to swallow – and it’s even good for you if you do. Mastic gum exhibits antimicrobial activity that supports gut health!