50 mins of fresh: Perfetti Van Melle develops chewing gum for lasting cooling
The method uses a combination of two ingredients that are separated from one another. The first is a cooling flavor made up of vinyl polymer, a dipeptide sweetener and at least one N-substituted methane-carboxamide. The second is a cooling mixture made up of organic mono-and-di acids esterified (combined with an acid or alcohol) with one or two menthol groups.
Perffeti said in its patent application: “The applicant has found that chewing gum containing the synergistic combination provides a more intense and long lasting cooling sensation than a chewing gum with its constituents when administered to a consumer, even after 20 minutes or more of chewing, for example after 30, 40 or 50 minutes chewing.”
Mixed with the gum dough
Chewing gum manufactures often use menthol to provide a natural cooling sensation. But menthol has a strong mint flavor and bitter taste, so cooling agents - often mixtures of carboxamides -are used to enhance the cooling sensation.
“Although different types of cooling agents are known, and although controlled-release systems of intensive sweeteners and flavours are known, it is still necessary to find formulations that guarantee a long-lasting cooling sensation, and are simple and cheap to make,” said Perfetti.
Perfetti’s longer lasting coolness gum is manufactured according to conventional techniques. The cooling premix – in liquid form – is mixed with the gum dough.
Tasting panel
Five expert tasters were asked to evaluate the cooling effect of the created gum as compared to gums with either only a cooling mixture or a cooling flavor.
They used values of “no cooling” to “unbearable cooling” on a scale of 0-100 and chewed the gums for one hour.
The invented gum maintained cooling levels above 14 after 50 mins , while the control gums exhibited no cooling or levels around 1 during the same period.
The invented gum stayed in the range of 34-53 for the first 30 mins and had a score of 11.6 after an hour.
Source:
WIPO Publication No.: WO/2014/173922
Published: 30.10.2014 Filed: 23.04.2014
‘Chewing gum with long-lasting freshness and its manufacturing process '
Inventors: Perfetti Van Melle - Roberto Colle, Gianni Baldi, Maurizio Deleo
