Nanotechnology works to bring fantasy gum to life
OCT 08, 2010
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.024727
Daily Mail : Recent advances in nanotechnology could turn Willy Wonka’s Three-Course Dinner Chewing Gum into reality. In Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the gum first tastes like tomato soup, then roast beef and baked potato, and finally blueberry pie and ice cream. Now, food scientist Dave Hart and coworkers at the UK’s Institute of Food Research (IFR) say they have cracked the secret behind creating such a stick of chewing gum. Hart and his team are experimenting with creating different flavor layers separated by a tasteless gelatin, with a final dessert taste at the center, encapsulated in a high-tech gel called Gellan. “Tiny nanostructures within the gum would contain each of the different flavors. These would be broken up and released upon contact with saliva or after a certain amount of chewing,” says Hart.
© 2010 American Institute of Physics
