Chewing Gum

`Chewing gum contains toxic mineral hydrocarbons and should carry a health warning, warns a consumer watchdog body.

`The Food Commission says people should be advised they are "chewing on danger."

` "Chewing gum contains mineral hydrocarbons - better known as paraffin wax or vaseline - which have been banned because of their toxicity from all foods except chewing gum, bubblegum and cheese rind," the commission said in its publication, The Food Magazine.

`In August Food Minister David Maclean told parliament the government urged consumers not to consume chewing gum. He also suggested cutting off the wax rind on cheeses, leaving a 2mm cushion of cheese for safety.

`The caution followed Mr Maclean's decision to allow mineral hydrocarbons to be used in chewing gum and cheese wax, at least until further scientific reports are received in 1992.

`Early in 1989, the government announced its intention to ban petroleum-based oils from most other food uses, such as coating dried fruit.

`Philip Hamilton, managing director of Wrigley, which holds 88 percent of British gum sales, dismissed the Food Commission's claims as "sensationalist, inaccurate and misleading." ' (The Johannesburg Star, December 13, 1990, p.20)

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