Space Food, Chewing Gum, Apollo

This spacefood package contains chewing gum intended for use during the Apollo program, but was not used on a mission. The gum could be used directly from the package and did not require special handling. Gum was amongst the numerous snacks provided to Apollo astronauts.

Apollo astronauts were provided with three meals per day, providing approximately 2,800 calories. The food was protected with a 4-ply, laminated film coating. This protected the food from loss of flavor, moisture, oxygen, spoiling and excess crumbling, and was used on both the rehydratable and the bite-sized foods. The rehydratable foods also had an 8-quinolinol sulfate tablet attached to reduce spoilage in the used food wraps.

This package of food was found in the collection, but was likely transferred from NASA to the Museum in the 1970s or 1980s.