How chewing gum is made
Most chewing gum is chewy plastic: a synthetic polymer base laced with sweetener and flavor.
- stations
- 8
- things upstream
- 31
- raw sources
- 13
- steps from the ground
- 7
The short version
Chewing gum starts with a gum base, a mix of elastic polymers, resins, waxes and fillers that is melted and strained. Sweeteners and flavors are kneaded in while the warm mass thickens like dough. It is then extruded, rolled or cut into its final form, and conditioned with powder or coated in layers before it is wrapped.
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Melt the gum base
Elastic polymers, resins, waxes and fillers are melted together. Today most of the elastic part is synthetic rubber, since the natural latex once used has largely been replaced by petroleum-derived polymers. Many big gum makers produce their own base in-house, to a secret formula.
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Strain out the lumps
The molten base is filtered so no grit or clumps remain. It is then held ready for the next batch.
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Knead in sweet and flavor
Sugar or sugar alcohols and flavor oils are worked into the base in a heated mixer. The mix warms and thickens like dough. A normal chewing gum is 20–25% gum base, while sugar-free gum has more.
Goes in -
Press through a die
An extruder smooths the dough and pushes it out in a continuous ribbon or rope. Cube and chunk gums are chopped straight off the extruder with a vertical cutter.
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Roll into sheets
Stick, slab and tab gums are rolled out in thin sheets between rollers. The sheet thickness sets the weight of each piece.
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Score and cut
Knives score the sheet and snap it into sticks or tabs. Pieces are sprinkled with fine powder so they do not stick to one another or to the wrapper.
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Coat the pellets
Pellet gum gets its hard shell from layers of syrup applied in temperature-controlled coating pans. Each layer can carry a different flavor, which is why pellet gums can change taste as you bite through.
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Wrap and pack
Machines wrap each stick, or seal pellets in bottles and blister packs. Gum sticks to oily surfaces, so lines are kept clear of grease.
Worth repeating
- The US FDA allows 46 different chemicals under the umbrella term gum base.
- The Aztecs and Maya chewed chicle, a latex from Mesoamerican trees, long before modern gum existed.
- By the 1960s, most chewing gum companies had switched from chicle to cheaper polybutadiene.
Back to the ground
Follow every input upstream and chewing gum starts as these 13 raw sources.
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Sources
Cite this page: "How chewing gum is made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/chewing-gum