Gum arabic beyond Sudan: how to assess a new origin

Sudan is the leading producer of gum arabic, with Chad and Nigeria behind it.^1,2 In March 2025 the industry body AIPG said the conflict in Sudan had led to more production and exports from other gum-belt countries, which have long produced the gum.³ The same statement put Sudan’s 2024 exports at more than 70,000 tonnes and said they remain traceable and legitimate.³

What follows is a way to test gum from an origin new to you, from the legal definition to six steps ending in a yes or a no.

We have an interest. We buy raw gum in Somaliland, an unproven origin for gum arabic, and we make no food-grade claim for it. Apply the method to us as you would to anyone.

How the law defines gum arabic

Food law defines gum arabic by its tree, and the main texts are not worded alike.^4,5 The JECFA specification, INS 414, defines it as the dried exudate from the stems and branches of Acacia senegal or Acacia seyal.⁴ The EU defines E 414 as coming from Acacia senegal or closely related species of Acacia, and does not name Acacia seyal.⁵ In the United States, 21 CFR 184.1330 affirms acacia (gum arabic) as generally recognised as safe, and defines it as the dried gummy exudate of various species of Acacia.⁶

Botanists now treat Acacia senegal as Senegalia senegal; the regulations keep the older name, and so does this article.⁷

Where the gum comes from

The trees grow across Africa’s gum belt, from Mauritania and Senegal in the west to Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania in the east.¹ World exports of crude and semi-processed gum averaged about 102,000 tonnes a year in 2014 to 2016.¹ Europe imported about 98,700 tonnes in 2023, more than half into France.⁸

Somalia is named in UNCTAD’s description of the belt, but is absent from that study’s export tables and from the suppliers the Dutch agency CBI lists for Europe.^1,8

Two gums under one name

The trade calls gum from A. senegal hard gum and gum from A. seyal friable gum; in Sudan they are hashab and talha.¹ Hard gum is preferred for stabilising beverages and for most confectionery, friable gum for confectionery coatings.¹

The two are told apart by optical rotation: dissolved in water, gum from A. senegal turns polarised light to the left (laevorotatory) and gum from A. seyal to the right (dextrorotatory).⁴

In 1990 JECFA set numeric ranges for optical rotation and nitrogen, then dropped them in 1995 because they had excluded gum from some types of A. senegal.¹ Record the figure for each lot anyway, to compare one lot with the next.

Crude grades and processing

Hand-picked selected (HPS) means whole nodules of the lightest colour, with dust and siftings removed by hand.¹ Below it come cleaned and sifted, then cleaned, with siftings and dust as by-products.^1,9 The names are not fixed: PROTA expands CAS as “cleaned and sifted”, UNCTAD as “cleaned amber and sifted”.^9,1 Put the description in the contract as well as the name: nodule size, colour, bark and foreign matter.

Cleaning, sorting and grading are normally done in the producing country; spray-drying and most further processing are done by specialist processors.¹ We work at the first stage only: we buy gum locally in Somaliland, clean it, grade it as hand-picked selected, cleaned and sifted, or siftings, and kibble on request. We do not supply powder, spray-dried or instant gum.

The limits a lot has to meet

The table gives the limits published in the JECFA specification for INS 414 and in the EU specification for E 414 as rewritten by Regulation (EU) 2026/196, which applies from 18 August 2026. Percentages, mg/kg and cfu/g figures are maxima.^4,5

Parameter	JECFA	EU
Loss on drying	15% (granular), 10% (spray-dried)	17% (granular), 10% (spray-dried)
Total ash	4%	4%
Acid-insoluble ash	0.5%	0.5%
Acid-insoluble matter	1%	1%
Lead	2 mg/kg	0.05 mg/kg
Cadmium, mercury	No limit set	0.05 mg/kg each
Arsenic	No limit set	0.1 mg/kg
Aluminium	No limit set	200 mg/kg; 100 mg/kg for infant and young-child foods
Protein	No limit set	3.5%
Total plate count; yeasts and moulds	No limit set	10,000 cfu/g each
Salmonella	Negative	Absent in 25 g
E. coli	Negative in 1 g	Absent in 5 g

Read the full specification before you set your own: both documents also set tests for starch or dextrin and for tannin, and the EU text adds criteria for infant foods.

On lead, JECFA allows 2 mg/kg and the EU now allows 0.05 mg/kg, one fortieth as much.^4,5 Before you send a sample, confirm that the laboratory’s method can quantify below the limit.

The US regulation refers instead to the Food Chemicals Codex.⁶

What buyers ask of a supplier

CBI’s study of the European market lists what buyers there expect: a safety data sheet, a technical data sheet and a certificate of analysis; gum that is unadulterated, not mixed with other gums and of consistent light colour; food-safety certification such as FSSC 22000 or ISO 22000; and traceability.²

In the United States the FSVP rule puts the duty on the importer, the US owner or consignee of the food.¹⁰ The importer must analyse the hazards, evaluate the foreign supplier and verify it, for example by on-site audit, sampling and testing, or a review of the supplier’s food-safety records.¹⁰

AIPG has condemned any form of smuggling of acacia gum, and says its members act in line with its Code of Practice and apply its Good Practices for Gums.³ For a buyer, that means asking where the gum came from.

A supplier at a new origin may not meet every line, so ask early. We hold no food-safety certification: if your approval process requires one from the origin supplier, tell us at the start.

Six steps for an unproven origin

With no trade history to lean on, skip none of these steps. The cheap checks come first, so a gum that is going to fail does so before you have bought any.

1. Species evidence. Ask which tree the gum is collected from and who says so. Then have optical rotation measured on the lot.
2. A sample. Ask for one drawn from the lot on offer. Check it against the written grade and keep part as your reference.
3. A full laboratory panel on the lot. Test every parameter in the specification that applies in your market, not a selection. Ask for the laboratory’s own report, with its methods and limits of quantification.
4. A trial lot. Buy a small one. Test it on arrival against the results you approved, then run it through your own process.
5. A second lot. One lot proves one lot. Test a second, bought at a different time, in the same way before you plan volume.
6. Origin records. Ask who collected the gum, where and when, and check that the purchase records add up to the weight shipped.

Before the sample is drawn, agree in writing what happens if a lot fails.

Where Somaliland stands

The sources cited here say Somalia: Somaliland is not widely recognised, and none of them treats it separately.

The tree is native to Somalia,⁷ and the Flora of Somalia records it under the Somali names adad, adat, cadaad and idaad.¹¹ The same flora calls the species very variable there, and notes shrubby forms that other authors treat as the variety kerensis.¹¹ PROTA reports that this variety, found in Somalia and elsewhere in East Africa, does not appear to produce much gum in its native range.⁹

We know of no published laboratory profile of gum from Somaliland, and we have not published one of our own. So we do not call our gum food grade or E 414, we state no optical rotation figure, and we do not claim it is equivalent to Sudanese hashab.

What we can put behind the steps is this. The gum we buy is identified by the local name of its tree, cadaad, and has not been botanically verified. Request a sample and it is drawn from the lot on offer. The tests that can be run on a lot are arranged with an outside laboratory on request. We confirm the volume we can supply for each order before we quote. Every purchase is recorded, and the lot list ties each bag to a collection area and date: see what we record for every lot.

If two lots suit your process, we can talk about a supply programme. Grades and terms are on the gum arabic sheet.