Gummy candy

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Gummy candies

Gummy candies are soft, rubbery, chewy, elastic sweets made from sugar , glucose syrup and thickeners . They are often shiny, translucent and brightly colored, have a fruity or sour taste and can also be coated with granulated sugar. Typical of gummy candies is their variety of finely detailed, often artistically designed shapes; they are made in a special casting process in the shape of fruits, animals, figures and many other shapes. A distinction is also made between fruit and wine gums according to taste.

To distinguish from the gumdrops are similar in composition jelly beans and marshmallow cream products . In some cases, combined products are common, for example with a top made of fruit gum and a bottom made of mousse.

Animal shaped gummy candies are known as gummy animals ; the most common variant is the gummy bear .

composition

Fruit gum flower

Gummy candies are classified as sugar confectionery , as they mainly consist of sugar, which is why they are also called “rubber confectionery” in technical terms. Its ingredients are sugar, glucose syrup, water and a thickening agent or a mixture of several thickening agents, mostly gelatine , modified starch or gum arabic . The high water content compared to hard caramels, for example, together with the thickening agent, causes the gummy consistency. They get their taste from the addition of fruit juice concentrates , citric , lactic or other edible acids , natural and artificial flavorings or wine ; in addition, they often also contain dyes . Sugar-free gummy candies are also available, they contain sugar substitutes like maltitol instead of sugar and glucose syrup.

The gelatine used in Germany usually comes from pigs . Variants with fish gelatine are also available, especially for people with religious reservations about the consumption of pork products.

According to the guideline for sugar confectionery of the BLL, wine gum must actually be made using real wine, but does not need to contain alcohol , especially as this evaporates during the production process. An exception to this rule is English wine gum, which is generally made without wine.

Manufacturing

Gummy candies are produced on an industrial scale in different processes, but the basic principle is always the same. Sugar, syrup and water are mixed together and brought to a suitable concentration, often by boiling under vacuum , but methods without boiling are also known. The gelatine, as well as the gum arabic, is not cooked or only cooked briefly so as not to damage it, as it is temperature-sensitive. Acids, aromas and colorings are usually only added at the end of the preparation. At the end you get a thick mass from which you can shape the candy. The starch casting process is usually used for this , in which the mold is pressed as a recess into a layer of starch powder and filled with the casting compound. After the candy has dried and solidified, which can take several hours, the starch is sieved off.

The solidified gummy candies can then be treated with steam and dried to get a shiny surface; Surface treatment with vegetable fat or beeswax is also possible. Some varieties are briefly steamed to be coated with granulated sugar, rolled in the sugar and dried again.

Economical meaning

In 2005, sales in the fruit and wine gum market in Germany totaled 340 million euros. With a market share of more than 54 percent, the manufacturer Haribo  GmbH & Co. KG was well ahead of its competitors Katjes and Trolli . The total advertising budget for the fruit and wine gum market in 2005 totaled twelve million euros, of which over 80 percent was invested by Haribo.

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d gummy candies. In: Commodity. Federation of the German Confectionery Industry , accessed on October 11, 2014 .
  2. a b Hartmut Hoffmann, Werner Mauch, Werner Untze: Sugar and sugar products . 2nd, revised edition. Behr, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-86022-937-0 , pp. 185 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. Federal Association of the German Confectionery Industry: Guideline for sugar products . Ed .: Federation for Food Law and Food Science . May 2012, Section D 4, p. 9 ( document on the BLL website [accessed September 29, 2014]).
  4. Food newspaper. No. 4, January 28, 2005, p. 56.

Web links

Commons : Wine gum  - collection of images, videos and audio files