How are vitamin gummies made?
Active candy, and vitamin gummies specifically, have gained a lot of popularity in recent years. Whether you’re a new investor, a known fabricator, own an existing brand or are simply trying to start your own small-scale production, OTC Candy provides you with the right equipment and expertise to enter this market. But before you do so, it is important to understand the basics. So how are vitamin gummies made exactly? We’ll gladly tell you all about it!
Finding the right recipe
As you can probably imagine, the recipe is key. Adding vitamins influences the flavour. Vitamin C is exceptionally sour, for example, so adding this vitamin to your candy will require an added buffer salt. There are certain required additives for many different kinds of vitamins, so experimentation is required to create the perfect piece of candy that meets your demands. Within our Innovation Lab, the recipe is perfected and made stable before the production process begins. This way, consistent yields are guaranteed.
Producing the candy
After sugar, the second most important ingredient is a gelling agent, usually gelatine or the vegan alternative pectin. This gelling agent is dissolved first, through a process that requires water in order to create the right texture. Subsequently, the sugar is added. Often this is the generic granulated sugar you would add to your coffee or tea, complemented by sugar syrup containing different kinds of short and long strain sugars. An optimal combination of different types of sugars will provide your final texture and stability.
This all adds up to the base mass that is now ready to be cooked, which removes moisture and makes the candy preservable, adding to its shelf life. OTC Candy specialises in a continuous cooking process, which grants a large amount of control over de final amount of moisture in the candy and thus its quality and consistency.
Adding the active ingredients
After the cooking process, the heat sensitive ingredients are added, vitamins, flavour and colour are added. This is because many vitamins, and other active ingredients as well, are lost when exposed to high temperatures for long time. As such, it is important to add these just before depositing after which the temperature drops quickly. As last ingredient the acid is added that is needed to achieve a the right sweet-sour balance for your fruity flavour.
The so called validation process ensures that the batch is homogenous. Each candy should contain just as much of the active ingredients as the next one, which requires accurate dosage and secure measurement.
The finishing touch
Finally, the entire candy mass is poured into a starch tray or starchless mould, where it cools and hardens in its final form. Often, the pieces of candy receive a finishing touch in the form of a shine or sugar sanding layer. The candy is then placed in a controlled environment to further cool and stabilize. This sounds excessive, but is required to ensure a stable end product!
Where OTC Candy makes the difference
Since creating shelf stable vitamin candy can be quite difficult, it is important to treat all steps of the production process with care. This is where the strength of OTC Candy lies, starting with the right recipe and working towards a stable end product through a continuous cooking system and controlled cooling environment.
Our production lines can be both manual or fully automated and anything in between, increasing the amount of control and safeguarding as we go. More automation means more capacity to produce higher quantities of vitamin gummies. We’re one of the few who can create accurate production lines in these varying sizes, from 100kg an hour all the way up to 5000kg an hour, we’re glad to work with you on the production line that suits your needs!
