Candy Consumer Trends
Food trends reflect customer values, larger cultural shifts, and technological innovation, giving businesses more insight, and consumers more options. The recent swing towards “Better For You” choices has impacted the food and beverage industry, driving producers to craft goods that not only deliver great taste, but that also help them feel their best.
The candy industry has not been insulated from this push for healthier options. Candies made with artificial sweeteners, sugar alcohols, and natural alternatives to white sugar now line grocery store shelves.
This shift presents a greater variety of choices, but poses unique problems for candymakers. In the U.S., products labeled with phrases like “reduced sugar” must reduce sugar content by at least 25%, but that reduction can change multiple end-result properties. Brands must consider how to balance consumer preferences with taste, texture, shelf-stability, and scalability.
What Sugar Does For Candy
The type of sweetener used affects how candies look, feel, taste, and survive production. Sugar goes beyond adding sweetness by contributing to the overall structure of the product.
Texture
Sugars can be processed to result in different levels of crystallization. Large crystals result in a grainy texture, but invert sugars result in smoother textures ideal for hard candies. Corn syrup provides a smooth texture along with moisture retention, ideal for chewy candies like taffy and gummies. Sugar also creates volume and a smooth mouthfeel.
Shelf Stability
The shape of different sugar molecules bind differently to water molecules, affecting the product’s shelf stability. By limiting water activity, sugars inhibit microbial growth, leading to an extended shelf life. If sugar is replaced with artificial sweeteners, artificial preservatives are likely to be required to achieve the same longevity.
Flavor Release
Sugars do more than taste sweet. They influence the richness and depth of other flavor profiles in food, particularly for gummies. Various combinations of gelatin, pectin, and sweeteners differ in the amount of aromatic compounds that are released, which alters the consumer’s flavor perception.
Traditional Confectionary Sweeteners
Sugars substitutes come in various crystal sizes and forms, each with different functional properties.
Despite their differences, all types of sugar start the same way – extracting sugar juice from sugar beets or sugar cane. Various processing methods result in a wide range of types: white, brown, or liquid. Superfine sugar has the smallest crystals and dissolves easily, sanding sugar is a coarse-grain that gives confections a sparkly look, and brown sugars retain more molasses, resulting in a stronger caramel flavor than other sugars.
Corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) are two very popular and very different things. While corn syrup is an invert sugar derived from corn starch, HFCS is highly-processed, highly-concentrated, and is the result of rearranging the chemical makeup of the sugar entirely. The process results in a product that is highly sweet and cheaper than regular sugar, but is metabolized differently in the body than sugars that naturally contain glucose and fructose.
In candy making, corn syrup is a natural option that prevents sugar crystal formation. Corn syrup, along with liquid sugar or invert sugar, is often preferred by candy manufacturers making smooth-textured products.
Popular Sugar Alternatives for Candy Manufacturers
Artificial Sweeteners
Sugar alternatives can reduce the total amount of sugar in the ingredients list. Artificial sweeteners are not plant-derived; they are manually processed from various chemicals in a laboratory.
Artificial sweeteners have drawbacks: some stimulate appetites, and others contain carbs or calories despite being marketed as “healthier.” While candies sweetened with artificial ingredients may cater to consumers with dietary restrictions, these sweeteners can make manufacturing complicated.
A simple swap from sugar to an artificial sweetener can alter the flavor profile and mouth feel of the finished product. Blending multiple sweeteners may be necessary to achieve the desired taste, and adding artificial preservatives may be needed to maintain freshness and consistency of the finished product.
Sugar Alcohols
Though derived from a sugar base, sugar alcohols are the result of a fermentation process resulting in alcohol formation and a changed chemical structure. Some of these molecules are not digested, but still impact blood sugar levels and can cause digestive side effects.
Different sugar alcohols affect candy manufacturing in different ways. Some offer humidity resistance and keep products clear, glossy, and less sticky. Others may not dissolve in solution in the same way as sugar, and some require other artificial sweeteners to produce similar tastes and textures as traditional candies. Paired with potential unpleasant effects in the body, consumer desires must be carefully considered before altering recipes with these types of sweeteners.
Natural Sugar Alternatives
Consumer demand expands beyond “less sugar.” Many people are increasingly aware of their products’ ingredients lists, and show preference for natural ingredients above artificial or overly-processed foods.
Ingredients like stevia, agave nectar, monk fruit, or honey already appear on sweet treat labels across the globe, but swapping to these alternatives is just as challenging as using an artificial replacement. These ingredients exhibit a flavor profile different from sugar, influencing consumer acceptance. They can also change the viscosity and thermostability of products, especially gummies and chocolate.
Reformulating Candy Recipes
Reducing or replacing sugar in any recipe, particularly in the candy industry, often means a complete restructuring of the entire product formulation. Manufacturers must consider how the change will affect not only the ingredient label, but also the flavor, shelf life, and most importantly the customer perception of the product.
Adjusting recipes can be an expensive, time-consuming process for a business. Producers juggle customer expectations with the budget and market available to them. Understanding your target market’s values, preferences, and trends will be imperative to all successful candy reformulations.
The Future of Candy Formulation
Your customers still want your candies, but they may be interested in enjoying them with less sugar. Brands need sweetener options that maintain the candy’s overall appeal while maintaining consistent production and the ability to scale manufacturing.
Truffly Made’s team of expert chemists and food scientists have decades of experience producing candy recipes that include natural alternatives and still result in some of the best candies on the market.
To optimize your upgraded candy formulations, visit trufflymade.com/collections/recipe-services or reach out to our team at info@trufflymade.com.