Topic for May. 16. ( Thur )

[Alex !]

History of Gum 

Gum is in crisis. As you can guess, this is a change that has come after the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, Fox News reported on the phenomenon of gum that has been neglected. The trend of buying or chewing gum has decreased. 

It was revealed that the biggest reason is that people are less worried about bad breath as social distancing becomes a daily habit and people wear masks during the pandemic. Impulse purchases of gum at supermarkets and other places have also decreased, leading to a 30% decrease in sales as of 2020.

Gum manufacturers are responding with promotional strategies to build a new image. They began promoting gum as a tool for ‘mental well-being’ such as relieving stress and improving concentration. In fact, even before the pandemic, gum sales were steadily decreasing.

By reducing sugar intake, gum consumption has also decreased. People avoid gum that made with alternative sweeteners, there are not many options and it does not taste good. Alternative products for oral hygiene have also increased, including mouthwash, mints, candies, and jellies. 

It is not appropriate to throw away chewed gum recently that is also a reason why gum consumption is decreasing. Also, the image of chewing gum that gets thrown away on the street and sticks to the floor has been a social problem that has been on the news in the past.

There is also an image problem. Gum inherently has a rebellious or delinquent image. In addition, a bad image has been built up due to people chewing gum rudely in real life.

There is also an analysis that smartphones had a decisive influence on the decline of gum. 

According to an analysis by the British Financial Times, gum sales have been declining since 2007, the same year that Apple released its smartphone, the iPhone. In other words, smartphones have replaced gum as a way to kill time.

The history of gum dates back to the Neolithic Age. Gum made from birch bark tar that was discovered in Kieriki, Finland, which gives the illusion of being very familiar to us thanks to 'xylitol'. With teeth marks clearly remaining on the gum, it is estimated to be 5,000 years old. 

The Maya, Aztecs, and Greeks also chewed chicle, a natural rubber, or mastic gum, which was processed from the resin of the mastic tree.

The British who settled in New England first manufactured gum modeled after the resin of spruce tree sap chewed by Native Americans. Around 1850, gum using paraffin extracted from petroleum was developed and became more popular than products made from natural ingredients. 

There was also a culture of continuously eating sugar and chewing gum to compensate for the sweetness.

Gum was introduced to Korea during the Japanese colonial period. Although we became familiar with gum through the U.S. military during the Korean War, but there were too many obstacles to product technologically and properly in the harsh environment after the war.

Gum was first released in 1956 in Korea. It was Haitai bubble gum from Haitai Confectionery, but it smelled like resin and the texture was not smooth. Haitai later introduced manufacturing facilities and automatic packaging machines in Japan and launched ‘Super Mint’ with improved quality in 1959, gaining popularity. 

Haitai took the first step in developing Korean gum, but Lotte Confectionery took the lead in full-fledged gum development. Lotte has accumulated significant experience producing gum in Japan since 1947. Currently, Lotte occupies 80% of the domestic market through xylitol.