Could You Get Your Vitamin Supplements In A Bubble Gum?

A company that has created a pioneering vitamin and mineral supplement in the form of a chewing gum has now developed a novel bubble gum to target the sports nutrition market. The Vitaball product, Vitamingum SPORT bubblegum balls have been created with the wellness of your active children and teenagers in mind.

The bubblegum balls contain a quarter of your child’s recommended intake of 11 vitamins, plus biotin and an electrolyte blend of sodium chloride and potassium citrate. This follows the launch of Jelly Belly’s new ‘Sports Beans, which also contain sodium and potassium electrolytes, for fluid balance, vitamins B1, B2 and B3, for aid with weight control, and vitamin C for protection against oxidative damage to muscles and cells.

The company may struggle to get the marketing edge when confectionery giants such as Wrigley (Mars) and Cadburys (Kraft) dominate the shelves, and Regis Nesbitt, vice-president of sales and marketing, admitted, ‘We’re such a small company in comparison to Wrigley’s that we’re like a gnat on an elephant.’

However, he added, ‘We’ve got one stock keeping unit at Walgreens, but in general we have found that we have had more success gaining small pockets of distribution with firms distributing to smaller stores and mom and pop stores that are prepared to try something new and different. But we’re hoping that the SPORT gum could enable us to go to a different section of the store, with sports nutrition products, energy shots, or via clip strips in sporting goods areas.’

Nesbitt explained that the reason the gum could prove successful is that it has done what no other gum has been able to do before. Whilst many gum manufacturers have added the odd vitamin or mineral to their products to boost their wellness potential, Nesbitt says it is much harder to add a long list of vitamins and minerals to gum without compromising on flavour or texture, and the technology to do so was patented by Nesbitt in the mid-90s.

Nesbitt concluded by saying that he is also working on an energy gum that will contain added vitamins and minerals: ‘There have been caffeine driven energy gums on the market, but many of them were quite bitter and it hurt the overall market.’ However, though his formula is not finalised, Nesbitt said, ‘if we can bring out a product that delivers but also tastes good I think there is a market opportunity there.’