During production the amount of water available to hydrate your gelling agents is of importance. If your gelling agent is properly dissolved and hydrated, this is best for the final quality of your product.
Looking at functional gummies, consumers are less focusing on taste and texture, compared to regular gummies.
What are the most critical ingredients when formulating sugar-free functional gummies?
There is a wide range of ingredients that can be used for the production of sugar-free gummies. In principle polyols, like for example maltitol, sorbitol and xylitol are relatively easy to use. Dietary fiber like for example FOS, polydextrose and soluble tapioca fiber are easy to use as long as you use them as a syrup. The powders of these ingredients are very hygroscopic. It is possible to use them, but normally the process should be adjusted to incorporate the powder in a good way. Furthermore allulose is gaining popularity in the US, however it is not allowed as a food ingredient in Europe (yet).
Different gelling agents can be used in combination with sugar-free ingredients. For gelatin gummies is easier to get a stable end product, compared to pectin for example. For pectin jellies the combination of dry solid content and pH, in combination with a mix of sugar-free ingredients should be well tested, to see if your end product is really stable during shelf life.
How do you ensure the sweetness of sugar-free gummies without compromising on taste?
All sugar-free ingredients taste less sweet in comparison to sugar. Normally this is compensated by the use of intensive sweeteners, like for example stevia, monk fruit of sucralose. These ingredients have a sweetness of 150 to 600 times the sweetness of sugar and are therefore added in very small amounts. These intensive sweeteners can have a bit of an off-taste, but nowadays very good masking flavors exist to mask the off-taste.
Can you share some insights on the types of sweeteners that work best in sugar-free gummies? Are there any that should be avoided?
Depending on the processing equipment you have, in principle all sugar-free ingredients can be used. If you want to use a lot of dietary fibers, like polydextrose, it is important to have the right processing equipment for this. Tanis can help you to design your gummy production line to make sure the sugar-free ingredients you want to use can be processed on your line, in combination with the gelling agents you want to use. To make a stable gummy it is important to balance the ingredients. You should not use too much xylitol and erythritol for example, because these ingredients have the tendency to recrystallize even when using small amounts.
At which stage in the gummy-making process is it most crucial to monitor ingredient interactions, especially when working with functional ingredients and sugar substitutes?
Functional ingredients can have the tendency to react with each other or other ingredients available. Our experience is that sugar substitutes react in a comparable way as sugar-based ingredients.
What challenges do you encounter when balancing functional ingredients with the gummy’s texture and consistency, especially in a sugar-free context?
Sugar-free or sugar-reduced gummies can be a bit softer compared to sugar-based gummies, however this is very depending on the ingredients used and the dry solid content of the gummies. The balancing of functional ingredients with the gummies texture and consistency is not very different, compared to sugar-based gummies. You always have to look at your formulation when you want to add functional ingredients. It is also important to follow the products made during shelf life to see if they are stable and keep their texture and consistency. It is good to mention though that sugar-free pectin gummies have a bigger tendency to crystallize during shelf-life, so this is an important parameter to monitor during your product development and shelf-life testing.
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