What! We won't be able to drink Coke in half a year?

On a hot summer day, opening a bottle of ice-cold soda is so refreshing!

But this happiness that was within reach was soon no longer guaranteed because of the unrest in Sudan thousands of miles away.

According to Reuters, 70% of the world’s gum arabic is produced in Sudan[1], and gum arabic is a raw material that soda giants such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi rely heavily on.

Without gum arabic, the gas in soda wouldn’t stay in it.

However, due to the recent armed conflict in Sudan, the supply of gum arabic has become a problem, and finding a substitute is difficult in the short term.

Currently, the global stock of gum arabic is only enough to last about half a year.

Half a year later, are we really going to face a world without happy water?

01

What is gum arabic?

Gum arabic is also known as gum arabic. You may not have heard of it, but you have definitely eaten it and used it.

Gum arabic is a common food additive that makes beverages taste better and last longer in storage. It is also widely used in processing candies and other foods, and appears in cosmetics, pigments, and printing inks.

The source of gum arabic is acacia, which appears in many documentaries.

They are tall and straight, with beautiful tree shapes, and are also the favorite food of herbivores such as giraffes. They have become a symbol of Africa.

Acacia in Tanzania. Image credit: Pixabay

Specifically, gum arabic is a gum produced by several trees of the genus Acacia in the Fabaceae family, and its main component is polysaccharides. Its appearance and properties are somewhat similar to peach gum (although the two plants are very distantly related taxonomically, peaches belong to the Rosaceae family).

Without gum arabic, there would be no refreshing taste of soda.

But if you turn the beverage bottle over and check the ingredient list (be careful not to spill it), you generally won’t find gum arabic because it is often the raw material for edible flavors and food colorings, so it is not listed separately in the ingredient list, but it is an important "behind-the-scenes role."

Gum arabic in block and powder form. Image source: Wikipedia

02

The essential "hidden formula" of soft drinks

First, gum arabic is an excellent emulsifier .

Many edible flavors and food colorings are oil-soluble, but sucrose is water-soluble. With the help of gum arabic, these ingredients can coexist harmoniously and be mixed into a soft drink syrup that is stable and durable for storage, which can be processed and transported by soda manufacturers and fast food restaurants [2].

In sugar-free beverages, gum arabic becomes a useful thickener.

Consumers often complain that sugar-free beverages lack the “sticky” texture of syrups. Adding an appropriate amount of this type of edible gum can solve this problem[3]. When we make desserts, we add peach gum and white fungus to take advantage of the taste of polysaccharides.

Most importantly, gum arabic can make the carbon dioxide in soda more stable. Gum arabic in carbonated beverages can change the surface tension coefficient of the solvent, allowing the carbon dioxide in carbonated beverages to exist stably in the beverage.

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Without gum arabic, Coke would quickly lose its gas.

03

Is it necessary to use gum arabic?

Gum arabic is so powerful, but if it has any disadvantages, it is that it is expensive and has a single source.

According to Reuters, the global annual production of gum arabic is about 120,000 tons, worth US$1.1 billion (RMB 7.6 billion) [1]. Most of it comes from the “gum belt” that runs across the southern Sahara, including Sudan, Ethiopia, Chad and other countries.

Among them, Sudan's gum arabic is very popular because of its good quality, and its price has also risen sharply.

If an important raw material is not cheap and is monopolized by a few manufacturers, companies will definitely feel uneasy.

After so many years of development, the food industry has indeed found many kinds of edible gums, such as gelatin, carrageenan, guar gum, locust bean gum...

The polysaccharide types in different edible gums vary, and their properties and uses also vary.

When you eat soft candies, yogurt, and ice cream, you can pay attention to the ingredient list.

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But there's one problem facing the soft drinks industry: It's too big.

The monopoly and consumer loyalty that made Coca-Cola successful also hindered its change.

For a company the size of Coca-Cola, changing the recipe means massively adjusting the production line, which costs a lot of money.

More importantly, everyone has become accustomed to the taste of Coke, and changing the formula may make consumers feel that it "doesn't taste that way."

In July 2021, Coca-Cola announced that it would change the formula of Coke Zero. Many people asked Coke to "return to the previous version", and some even claimed that they would only drink Pepsi in the future.

04

So, should I stock up on some Coke?

Seeing this, soda lovers must have started to wonder whether to stock up.

But don’t forget that the shelf life of soda is usually about one year. Stocking too much not only takes up space but may also be wasted.

Besides, the manufacturer is definitely more anxious than you.

Yun Wuxin, a doctor of food engineering, analyzed on Weibo that if the situation in Sudan cannot be improved in the short term, manufacturers that originally relied on gum arabic will have two options: either develop new production areas or quickly adjust the formula. The latter option may be faster [4].

Unrest isn't the only thing to worry about; acacia trees also face threats from climate change.

Gum arabic production is higher in the rainy season and lower in the dry season. Climate change could alter rainfall patterns in southern Sahara, which could have an impact on gum arabic production[5].

In 2007, a local farmer recalled in a media interview: “In the 1990s, we could collect seven or eight bags of gum arabic from one hectare of land in two weeks. Now we can only collect one or two bags from one hectare.”[6]

In this era of globalization, our daily lives are closely related to unfamiliar and distant places.

I hope Sudan will get out of the war soon, and people can sit under the shade of the acacia trees and enjoy the coolness of their drinks.

References:

[1] Sudan conflict threatens supply of key soft drink ingredient gum arabic. (2023). Retrieved 9 May 2023, from https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/sudan-conflict-threatens-supply-key-soft-drink-ingredient-2023-04-28/

[2] Williams PA, Phillips G O. Gum arabic[M]//Handbook of hydrocolloids. Woodhead Publishing, 2021: 627-652.

[3] Acacia gum, a versatile ingredient for sugar-free food and drinks. (2020). Retrieved 9 May 2023, from https://www.foodnavigator.com/News/Promotional-Features/Acacia-gum-a-versatile-ingredient-for-sugar-free-and-sugar-reduced-food-and-drinks

[4] Retrieved 9 May 2023, from https://m.weibo.cn/status/MF6kqi9dO

[5] Machado T, de Souza JP F. The influence of environmental factors in the production of gum arabic (Acacia senegal, Fabaceae) - A meta-analysis[J]. Revista Brasileira de Climatologia, 2018, 23.

[6] Gum Arabic: Sudan's Miracle Commodity. (2007). Retrieved 9 May 2023, from https://www.npr.org/2007/06/20/11224050/gum-arabic-sudans-miracle-commodit

Source: Guokr

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