CHEWING GUMS HAVING IMPROVED REMOVABILITY BASED ON LINEAR VISCOELASTIC SHEAR RHEOLOGY
A chewing gum, when chewed, produces a cud having improved removability from environmental surfaces by virtue of its linear viscoelastic shear rheology. The cud has a specified temperature dependent storage modulus differential (Δ log G′/ΔT) at 25° C. and 60° C. Specifically, the cud has a temperature dependent storage modulus differential less than 0.050.
1 . A chewing gum which, upon chewing, forms a cud having a temperature dependent storage modulus differential (Δ log G′/ΔT) of less than 0.050.
2 . The chewing gum of claim 1 wherein the chewing gum comprises a water-insoluble gum base portion and a water-soluble bulk portion.
3 . A chewing gum of claim 1 wherein the chewing gum comprises a tri-block copolymer in the form A-B-A or A-B-C having a soft mid-block and hard end-blocks wherein the soft mid-block comprises at least 30 wt. % of the tri-block copolymer and wherein the hard end-blocks each have a T g below 70° C.
4 . The chewing gum of claim 3 wherein the chewing gum further comprises a diblock copolymer.
5 . The chewing gum of claim 3 wherein the tri-block copolymer comprises a soft mid-block and hard end-blocks wherein the soft mid-block comprises at least 30 wt. % of the tri-block copolymer and wherein the hard end-blocks each have a T g below 70° C.
6 . The chewing gum of claim 5 wherein the hard end-blocks each have a T g below 60° C.
7 . The chewing gum of claim 5 wherein the hard end-blocks each have a T g between 40° C. and 60° C.
8 . The chewing gum of claim 1 wherein the chewing gum comprises crosslinked polymeric microparticles.
9 . The chewing gum of claim 8 wherein the crosslinked polymeric microparticles have a glass transition temperature of less than about 30° C.
10 . The chewing gum of claim 8 wherein the crosslinked polymeric microparticles have a glass transition temperature of less than 10° C.
11 . The chewing gum of claim 8 wherein the crosslinked polymeric microparticles have a glass transition temperature of less than 0° C.
12 . The chewing gum of claim 8 wherein the crosslinked polymeric microparticles have a largest dimension of at least 0.1 microns.
13 . The chewing gum of claim 8 wherein the crosslinked polymeric microparticles have a largest dimension of at least 0.5 microns.
14 . The chewing gum of claim 8 wherein the crosslinked polymeric microparticles have a largest dimension of at least 10 microns.
15 . The chewing gum of claim 8 wherein the crosslinked polymeric microparticles have a largest dimension of less than 1000 microns.
16 . The chewing gum of claim 8 wherein the crosslinked polymeric microparticles have a largest dimension of less than 500 microns.
17 . The chewing gum of claim 8 wherein the crosslinked polymeric microparticles have a largest dimension of less than 100 microns.
18 . The chewing gum of claim 2 wherein the water-insoluble base portion comprises 45 to 95% by weight of polyethylene having a weight average molecular weight between 2000 and 23000 daltons.
19 . The chewing gum of claim 18 wherein the water-insoluble base portion comprises 50 to 75% by weight of polyethylene having a weight average molecular weight between 2000 and 23000 daltons.
20 . The chewing gum of claim 18 wherein the water-insoluble base portion comprises 55 to 70% by weight of polyethylene having a weight average molecular weight between 2000 and 23000 daltons.
21 . The chewing gum of claim 3 wherein the polymer is a food grade polymer.
22 . The chewing gum of claim 1 which, upon chewing, forms a cud having a temperature dependent storage modulus differential (Δ log G′/ΔT) of less than 0.045.
23 . The chewing gum of claim 1 which, upon chewing, forms a cud having a temperature dependent storage modulus differential (Δ log G′/ΔT) of less than 0.040.
24 . The chewing gum of claim 1 which, upon chewing, forms a cud having a temperature dependent storage modulus differential (Δ log G′/ΔT) of less than 0.035.
25 . The chewing gum of claim 1 which, upon chewing, forms a cud having a temperature dependent storage modulus differential (Δ log G′/ΔT) of less than 0.030.
26 . The chewing gum of claim 1 wherein the chewing gum comprises less than 10% polyvinyl acetate.
27 . The chewing gum of claim 1 wherein the chewing gum comprises less than 10% triglycerides.
28 . The chewing gum of claim 1 wherein the chewing gum is essentially free of proteins.
29 . The chewing gum of claim 1 wherein the chewing gum, upon chewing, produces a cud having storage modulus (G′) of from 10 5 Pa to 10 7 Pa at 37° C.
30 . The chewing gum of claim 1 wherein the chewing gum, upon chewing, produces a cud which leaves no more than 20% of the original gum cud surface area as residue after a single pass of a metal scraper.