Nonstick chewing gum to become a reality

Easy-to-remove chewing gum is to become a reality, thanks to a major technological breakthrough. The announcement will be made this week at the BA Festival of Science in York, UK.

Revolymer, a spin out company from the University of Bristol, has completed development of its new Clean Gum that can be easily removed from shoes, clothes, pavements and hair. Preliminary results also indicate that the gum will degrade naturally in water.

The company has completed initial street trials on pavements in local high streets as part of a collaborative agreement with local councils. In the two trials, leading commercial gums remained stuck to the pavements three out of four times. In all tests the Revolymer gum was removed within 24 hours by natural events.

Professor Terence Cosgrove, of the University of Bristol and Chief Scientific Officer of Revolymer said: “The advantage of our Clean Gum is that it has a great taste, it is easy to remove and has the potential to be environmentally degradable.”

“The basis of our technology is to add an amphiphilic polymer to a modified chewing gum formulation which alters the interfacial properties of the discarded gum cuds, making them less adhesive to most common surfaces.”

“I am delighted with our progress” added Roger Pettman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “In eighteen months we have converted UK technology into a commercial product, significantly changing the pollution issues facing chewing gum.

A removable, degradable chewing gum is becoming a reality. Our initial research focused on the removability of Clean Gum from a variety of surfaces and we have shown that our technology has made a step change in chewing gum as a consumer product. We are planning our product launch for 2008.”

Source: University of Bristol