When chewing gum loses its flavour - context and problem-based learning

This probelm-based learning resource is designed to help students to develop approaches which might lead to the discovery of what some of the unwanted tastes and smells in a specific foodstuff and how the causes of these could be tested for using analytical chemistry techniques. 

Chewing gum has been used by cultures and civilisations since the Neolithic period, thousands of years before Christ. Ancient Greeks and Native North Americans all chewed gum. Today over 28 million people in the UK chew gum regularly. As with any flavoured foodstuff, occasionally chewing gum flavours produce undesired tastes and odours or other production problems lead to unwanted tastes and textures.