Rowntree's Fruit Gums

Fruit Gums
Product type	Gumdrop
Owner	Nestlé
Country	U.K.
Introduced	1893; 128 years ago
Previous owners	Rowntree's
Website	rowntrees.co.uk/fruitgums

Rowntree's Fruit Gums are circular sweets formerly made by Rowntree's, who were later acquired by Nestlé. There are five flavours, each of a different colour: strawberry (originally raspberry), orange, lemon, blackcurrant and lime.

The sweets were introduced in 1893, and originally marketed as Rowntree's Clear Gums - "The nation's favourite sweet" - and were available in twopenny tubes and sixpenny packets.^[1] In addition to the traditional roll packaging, they were available in a larger-volume box containing the sweets in the shape of the fruit or part of the fruit that the flavour represents.

In 2020 Nestlé have made the move to manufacture Fruit Gums solely in the bag format. The sweets in the bag format are the traditional fruit shaped sweets which are a little lighter than the previous round shapes sweets that you would find in the tubes. The new bags are recyclable through the Terracycle scheme.

Ingredients[]

Glucose Syrup, Sugar, Starch, Gelatine, Acids (Malic Acid, Citric Acid, Lactic Acid), Concentrated Fruit Juice (1%) (Grape, Apple, Blackcurrant, Strawberry, Orange, Lemon, Lime), Acidity Regulator (), Flavourings, Naturally Sourced Colours (Anthocyanins, Carminic Acid, Copper Complexes of Chlorophyllins, Curcumin, Carotenes), Glazing Agent (Carnauba Wax). ^[2]

Rowntree's fruit gums, because they contain gelatine, are unsuitable for vegetarians and vegans. Future formulations may replace the gelatine with agar agar, which is suitable for all consumers and which, being softer, is gentler on teeth.

The fruit juice content was 25 percent up until around 2010 when it was changed to 1 percent concentrated fruit juice.

In 2017, Nestlé announced that they would reduce the amount of sugar by 30%.^[3]

"Don't Forget the Fruit Gums, Mum"[]

An advertising campaign for the gums that ran for three years from 1958 to 1961 included the slogan "Don't Forget the Fruit Gums, Mum". The slogan was invented by the copywriter Roger Musgrave (1929-2007).

The television advert featured a young boy reminding his mother to buy fruit gums as she leaves to go shopping. The advert claims that "[Fruit Gums] last all day" and that "Rowntree's Fruit Gums last the longest". This referred to the number of sweets in the tube.^{[citation needed]}