“Gum is safe to enjoy as it has been for more than 100 years,” the National Confectioners Association said via email. The trade group has member companies that make and sell gum. “Food safety is the number one priority for U.S. confectionery companies, and our member companies use only FDA-permitted ingredients.”

“Our initial hypothesis was that the synthetic gums would have a lot more microplastics because the base is a type of plastic,” Lisa Lowe, the study’s co-collaborator and a graduate student in Mohanty’s lab, explained in a statement. (Yes, certain types of synthetic gum contain petroleum-based polymers.)