Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will require chewing gum manufacturers to disclose the full composition of gum base on product labels.

Current food labelling rules permit manufacturers to list ‘gum base’ as an ingredient, where ‘gum base’ means gum preparations used in the manufacture of gum base for chewing gum. Manufacturers can provide more descriptive information relating to ingredients contained in the ‘gum base’ if they wish but this is not a requirement. There are currently no plans to amend the legislation.