Every ingredient in our gum, explained in plain English

There are 12 ingredients on the back of a YAWANA SMILE pouch. A few of them sound like they belong in a chemistry set, a car wash or a smoothie bowl. Here's each one, what it is, and why it's in a piece of gum.

They're in the order printed on the pouch. US labels list ingredients from most to least by weight,1 so the first few make up most of each piece and the last few are tiny amounts.

1. Xylitol

The sweetener, and the biggest ingredient. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol, which is a chemistry category, not booze. It's why the gum is sugar free and still sweet. It's also toxic to dogs, so the pouch stays sealed and out of their reach. We wrote a full xylitol guide with all the cautions.

2. Chicle Base

Our gum base is a proprietary blend of chicle, mastic, spruce, myrrh, and arabic. Chicle is the sap of the sapodilla tree, and it was the original base for American chewing gum before most brands switched to synthetic polymers. Ours is plastic-free. The history of chicle involves an exiled Mexican general, if you need something to read in the car line.

3. Gum Arabic

A natural gum, the dried sap of acacia trees, used across the food world as an emulsifier and stabilizer in drinks, candy and gum.2 In gum it's typically used as a binder and in the crunchy outer coating, and that's where it shows up in ours.

4. Hydroxyapatite

A calcium phosphate mineral, and the mineral found in tooth enamel. Ours is nano-hydroxyapatite, meaning very small particles. It's why the pouch says "remineralizing gum," which is the name of the category, not a promise about your teeth. More in hydroxyapatite in gum.

5. Rice Flour

Exactly what it sounds like. In gum, a light dusting of rice flour is the usual way to keep pieces from sticking to each other. And yes, the pouch is marked GLUTEN FREE: rice is naturally gluten free.

6. Flavor

This is where our extra fresh peppermint comes from. It's a blend that includes peppermint essential oil and menthol. We list it as "Flavor" because that's what labeling rules call a blend like this, and we haven't yet got certification that every component is natural, so we don't call it "natural flavor." If that changes, the label and this paragraph will change with it.

7. Spruce Gum

Resin from spruce trees, and one of the first commercial chewing gums in America. It adds to the chew. On its own it's resinous and bitter; under the peppermint, you won't notice it.

8. Coconut Oil

A small amount of oil is a common way to keep a gum's chew soft.

9. Calcium Bentonite Clay

A natural clay mineral. It's the ingredient people ask about most ("why is there clay in my gum?"). It's a small amount, and we're confirming its exact job in the recipe with our manufacturer before we describe it further. We'd rather leave a blank than guess. We'll update this paragraph when we hear back.

10. Myrrh Gum

A tree resin, yes, the same myrrh from the old stories, used in a very small amount.

11. Spirulina

A blue-green algae, used in foods as a natural color. Spirulina is used as a color in foods, and the FDA lists spirulina extract as a permitted color additive for candy and chewing gum.3 It's a tiny amount in our recipe.

12. Carnauba Wax

A plant wax from the leaves and buds of the Brazilian carnauba palm. It's a common glossy finish on candy and gum,4 and on ours it's a very thin glaze on the coating.

What you won't find

No sugar. No aspartame, sucralose or acesulfame potassium. No synthetic polymers in the gum base. No "proprietary blend" hiding anything. The pouch also carries NON GMO and GLUTEN FREE marks.

How to read any gum label in 60 seconds

You don't need to memorize anything. Flip the pack and do this:

  1. Count the ingredients. Not to find the shortest list, but so you know what you're reading.
  2. Read the first three. They're most of what you're chewing.
  3. Find the base. If it only says "gum base," the label isn't telling you whether it's a tree sap or a synthetic polymer. Here's what gum base can mean.
  4. Find the sweetener. Look for sugar, aspartame, sucralose, sorbitol or xylitol, and decide what you're comfortable with.
  5. Look for vague words. "Proprietary complex," "blend," and anything that sounds like a trademark instead of an ingredient.
  6. Check the count and the panel. Pieces per pack, serving size, calories per piece.

Then compare that to the front of the pack. If the front promises a lot and the back explains very little, that tells you something.

Questions people ask

What is gum arabic? A natural gum from the sap of acacia trees, used as a binder, thickener and coating in many foods.

What is carnauba wax? A wax from the leaves of the carnauba palm, used to give candies and gums a glossy finish.

Is there aspartame in YAWANA SMILE? No. The only sweetener is xylitol.

Why so many ingredients if it's "simple"? We never said simple. We said every ingredient is printed in full. Some gums have fewer. We'd rather show you all twelve and explain each one.

Twelve ingredients, no secrets

We could have made a shorter list, or hidden a few of these inside a "proprietary blend." We'd rather show you all twelve and tell you what each one does, including the one we're still confirming. That's how we built SMILE: every ingredient printed in full, on the back of every pouch and on our product page.

If you read labels for a living (or just for your family), come read ours. And if there's an ingredient you want to know more about, ask us at hello@yawana.shop. Good questions often turn into articles.

Keep reading: What is gum made of? · What is remineralizing gum?

Sources

  1. US Code of Federal Regulations, "21 CFR 101.4, Food; designation of ingredients." ↩

  2. US Code of Federal Regulations, "21 CFR 184.1330, Acacia (gum arabic)." ↩

  3. US Code of Federal Regulations, "21 CFR 73.530, Spirulina extract." ↩

  4. US Code of Federal Regulations, "21 CFR 184.1978, Carnauba wax." ↩