Friday, October 25, 2024

Why bubble gum is pink

Bubble gum is pink because it was the only dye the inventor had on hand.

Science & Industry

I t's often said that necessity is the mother of invention, and when it comes to confectionery, it is indeed the reason for bubble gum's iconic color. Bubble gum was invented in 1928 by Walter Diemer, an accountant at a Philadelphia candy company called Fleer. Although chewing gum had existed for thousands of years in various forms — such as birch bark resin or chicle, a natural gum from the sap of the sapodilla tree — the products available in the U.S. at the time were more sticky than stretchy. That included an early version of bubble gum (also invented by Fleer) known as Blibber-Blubber, which was hard to chew and stubbornly stuck to people's faces when the meager bubble inevitably burst.

Diemer spent his downtime experimenting with the company's gum recipes, and he eventually came up with a more pliable chewing gum that, for the first time, could easily form and hold a bubble. The new formulation was appealing, but its appearance certainly wasn't — the chewy gray substance needed some color. The only dye Diemer had on hand at the time was red; with no other choice, he added it to his mixture to give it a cheerful tint, and the first batch of pink bubble gum was born. Fleer demonstrated the new bubble gum at a local grocery store and had an immediate hit on its hands. The gum was named Dubble Bubble and inspired a slew of pink copycats — including the famous Bazooka Bubble Gum released just after World War II.

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By the Numbers

Diameter (in inches) of the world's largest bubble gum bubble

Pieces of bubble gum used in a sculpture by Italian artist Maurizio Savini

~3,000

Did you know?

Gum doesn't actually take seven years to digest.

Gum is many things, including chewy, flavorful, and sticky. It's possible that last attribute led to the long-standing myth that gum will stay in your body for seven years if you swallow it, but that myth is not actually true. Most gums contain a base, softeners, preservatives, and sweeteners or other flavors. While most of these ingredients are easily broken down by our digestive enzymes, the gum base is not — not unlike fiber, corn kernels, and some seeds that can't be digested by the body. But if you swallow a piece of gum, it isn't going to stick around — it'll simply travel the same path as other foods and pass out of the body, typically within 24 to 48 hours.