Speckled sugarless chewing-gum and process for its manufacture

Claim 1

In a sugarless speckled chewing-gum comprising a gum base, a sweetener in liquid phase, a sweetener in solid phase and a plurality of sweetening particles comprising a coloring or dye, the improvement comprising confining the coloring or dye inside the sweetening particles by incorporating at least one confining agent selected from the group consisting of the edible stearates, edible fatty acid esters and hydrogenated starch hydrolysates whose glucidic spectrum is as follows, percentages being given with respect to the dry matter: maltitol: 25 to 95%, sorbitol: 0.1 to 19%, the complement to 100 being constituted by polyols of degree of polymerization (DP) ≧3, wherein the stearates are incorporated, in the sweetening particles in a proportion of about 0.5 to 4% by weight with respect to the weight of the particles, wherein the fatty acid esters are incorporated, in the sweetening particles in a proportion of about 0.5 to 5% by weight with respect to the weight of the particles, and/or wherein the hydrogenated starch hydrolysates are incorporated, in the sweetener in liquid phase in a proportion of about 5 to 30% by weight with respect to the total mass of the chewing-gum.