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Gums

By Rabbi Dovid Cohen, Administrative Rabbinic Coordinator

Q. What are the “gums” I see listed on the ingredient panel of so many foods?

A. The term “gum” includes a wide range of polysaccharides which are (typically) used to thicken food products.  The different properties that these gums exhibit make each of them suitable for a different task: for example, some work well with goods that will be baked at high temperatures, and others are best for cold blended liquid medicines.  Most gums discovered and developed by scientists are produced from plant materials with no kashrus concerns.  This includes agar-agar (which is made from algae), alginates, carrageenan, cellulose, Ghati gum (Indian gum) (made from the bark of a certain tree), guar gum, karaya gum (made from the trunk of the sterculia trees), locust bean gum, and tragacanth (from a shrub that grows in the Middle East).

Pectin functions like “gums” and is commonly extracted from citrus peels and similar items, after which it is processed with ethanol or isopropanol.  There is a small possibility that ethanol might be non-kosher (and a somewhat stronger possibility that it is chametz), but it is more common that this process will be performed with isopropanol, which does not pose any kashrus concerns.

In contrast to the ones noted above, there are at least three gums which require certification.  Gellan gum and xanthan gum (the latter being a common thickener used in liquid medicines) are produced through “fermentation”, which basically means that a microorganism feeds on a growth media, and this allows it to produce some desirable product.  The growth media might contain non-kosher nutrients, and for that reason items made via fermentation always require certification.  This is particularly important for Pesach, because the most common ingredient in the growth media is “glucose”, which is typically made from corn or wheat.  Gum Arabic (a.k.a., gum acacia) is a plant product, but it is produced on “spray dryers” which might have previously been used for non-kosher materials, and, therefore, it requires hashgachah.

All the above is about different gums used as food ingredients, but chewing gum is a very different item.  The first step is to create a (tasteless) “gum base”, which is made of natural and synthetic “rubber” together with emulsifiers, plasticizers, and other chemicals.  The gum base is then mixed with sugar and/or corn syrup, flavor, glycerin, and colors.  Many of those ingredients – such as glycerin and plasticizers – can be made from non-kosher animal fat (or from other kosher sensitive ingredients), and, therefore, chewing gum should only be consumed if it bears reputable kosher certification.

This article first appeared in the Let’s Talk Kashrus column, Yated Ne’eman, December 6, 2024.