Arabic gum

Arabic gum manufacturing process by essedielle

Over the years essedielle has sought to refine the process of manufacturing gum arabic, with the fundamental goal not to distort its qualities and to offer customers a natural, high-quality product.

essedielle and gum arabic: a 30-year history

essedielle has been processing gum arabic for more than 30 years. Initially, it was not produced in-house, but the finished product from another manufacturer was supplied to customers. However, after a few years, it became necessary to deal with the raw material internally to bring it even closer to the needs of the customers. Thus, in 1994, an initial testing phase began both in our laboratories and in the division dedicated to production. Thus, after numerous technical and qualitative tests, the first brand of gum arabic signed by essedielle was created: Stabigum®.

First advertisement for the Stabigum® range, 1999
Given our customers’ enthusiasm for this product, the technical trials did not stop: in the following years the focus was on perfecting the production process and acquiring up-to-date production machinery and equipment. Over the years, in fact, other essedielle gum Arabicas have come into being, including Complex Gum®, another product popular with our customers.
Complex Gum advertisement, 2015

The essedielle manufacturing process

We import raw material directly from producing countries and from reliable importers: in fact, the success of the final product depends above all on the quality of the raw material that arrives in our laboratories. The selection of our suppliers has always been well thought out, precisely for this reason. The choice of importers is also made to support the realities of the place of origin and to support their production.

In any case, before starting the transformation process, the rubber is scrupulously checked so that it complies not only with quality and technological controls, but especially with the legal parameters on chemical, physical and microbiological safety.

The first stage is melting in cold water, a process that requires dedicated equipment and much more time than the application of hot water, but allows the Arabic gum to avoid oxidation, preserving as much as possible all the qualities of the raw material. After a holding period in the tank to allow the coarser particles to precipitate, the next steps consist of applying sequential filtrations at decreasing micrometers. Having reached this point, there is a main fork in the production chain: the so-called “long chain” gums, i.e., those from the acacia Senegal cultivar, have reached the end of the production cycle and, after analytical checks and approval, are bagged into the different sizes. Processing, on the other hand, continues for the “short chain” gums: in fact, the gum arabic that comes from acacia Seyal continues its processing through a resin plant, which provides, in addition to the breaking of the polymer chains, also the demetallization and decolorization of the gum. The latter is a fully automated process, which continues with further filtrations that reach a final micrometer of 0.1 µ. This allows the gum Arabic to be non-clogging when added into the wine, allowing it to be used at any stage, before or after the final pre-bottling filtration.
All stages, from the raw material to the finished product, are supported by the in-house analysis laboratory, to ensure, always with the least invasive approach possible on the precious raw material, also a constancy of characteristics and quality unchanged over the years