Fixation of APM in chewing gum

Claim 1

A chewing gum composition which comprises gum base, flavor, a bulking agent and L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester wherein the L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester is fixed in an encapsulating agent composition and the ratio of encapsulating agent composition to L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester is between about 10:1 to about 2:1 and the encapsulating agent composition consists of gum arabic and the reaction product of a compound containing a polyvalent metallic ion, with an ungelatinized starch acid-ester of a substituted dicarboxylic acid, such starch acid-esters represented diagrammatically by the following formula: ##STR3## where R is a radical selected from the class consisting of dimethylene and trimethylene radicals, and R 1 is a hydrocarbon constituent selected from the class consisting of alkyl, alkenyl, aralkyl or aralkenyl groups, the above-described ungelatinized starch acid-esters are prepared by reacting an ungelatinized starch, in an alkaline medium, with a substituted cyclic dicarboxylic acid anhydride having the following formula: ##STR4## where R and R 1 represent the same substituent groups as are listed above for those same symbols, substituted cyclic dicarboxylic anhydrides falling within this formula are the substituted succinic and glutaric acid anhydrides whereby the conversion of L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester to diketopiperazine is greatly reduced.