Chewing gum turns 150 - Lifestyle

The one that does not stick, that does not get fat, the one without dyes or preservatives, the one that makes you lose weight, that cleans your teeth, that helps you stop smoking, the one that President Obama chewed even on official occasions, in short, chewing gum. Product symbol of Made in the USA, which Europe has threatened to impose on sanctions as a counter move to those announced by the American authorities for example on parmesan cheese, chewing gum turns 150.
If we exclude those of the ancient Mayas, the first chewing gum balls were made by the American Thomas Adams and sold in February 1871 in a grocery store in Hoboken, New Jersey. But the real birth of the chewing gum is due to William Semple, who patented the first recipe on December 28, 1869. Its gum was more consistent and of better flavor and this made it successful in the last decade of the nineteenth century, thanks even to modern food handling techniques, advertising and the multiplication of vending machines. It will still take a long time for the chewing gum to land in Italy. In fact, we will have to wait for the second post-war period and for the Americans to disembark . During the Second World War, in fact, chewing gum had become part of the basic food of the military rations of US soldiers , along with Coca Cola and other foodstuffs. He had been enriched with heavy doses of caffeine to help soldiers engaged in grueling fighting. In fact, chewing gum, in addition to helping soldiers to keep the oral apparatus clean, also reduced tension. There were four flavors allowed within the K ration: mint, cinnamon, peppermint and pepsin. With the arrival of allied troops in Europe, chewing gum spread among the population, starting from England and then to other nations, immediately becoming one of the most appreciated emblems of the "American myth". In Italy it will be the entrepreneurial intuition of two brothers, Ambrogio and Egidio Perfetti , to insert chewing gum in Italian food culture and social behavior since 1956. The Perfetti brothers had started the artisan production of sugar candies, licorice and sugared almonds since 1946 in a laboratory located in Lainate, near Milan, personally distributing and selling the products by means of a wooden cart with which they move around the neighborhood. The success of that first venture pushed them after a short time to move to the industrial scale: thus they opened a factory with the name of Dolcificio Lombardo in which fifty people soon worked. But Brooklyn is the tire of the bridge to make their fortune. Much of the success of the product is certainly to be attributed to the choice of the name that "Brooklyn", clearly inspired by the New York bridge. The graphic project entrusted to the painter Daniele Oppi, all emphasized by the advertising slogan that accompanied it: "The rubber of the bridge" have created a highly iconic product that has endured over time. Today, however, chewing gum is looked at with less favor especially for the damage it causes in the environment. Being synthetic rubber the raw material with which it is made, a butt abandoned on the road, on the beach or in a wood takes over 5 years to decompose. The natural disposable vocation of this food does not improve things, it is estimated that 560 thousand tons of chewing gum are dispersed every year, of which 23 thousand in Italy alone.