Candy focus

14 October 2011 – This week I attended Sweet Tec, a conference which addressed trends and innovations in the sugar confectionery market.

Day one of the conference focused on Stevia, especially since the EC Commission presented a working document upon the EU approval of steviol glycosides at the beginning of July 2011. Official approval is expected by the end of this year.

Stefan Krense, head of Application Confectionery at Wild, discussed the specific use of Stevia in sugar confectionery. He focused on the multifaceted product options as well as technical challenges and projected legal requirements when developing Stevia sweetened sugar confectionery.

Kurt Rosenplenter of Nordzucker gave a presentation of natural sweeteners available to confectioners and the negatives and benefits of each. Of particular interest was the sweetener Thaumatin (E957), which has been shown to have synergistic effects with Steviolglycosides. Even though both sweeteners show bitter notes, it has proven in studies that an addition of 0.5 to 4ppm Thaumatin is sufficient to reduce the bitter notes of Steviolglycosides remarkably.

There are very few countries at present that have unreservedly accepted the use of the Stevia plant. Japan, Panama, Korea and Chile are among those acknowledging its use. Christina Lutz of Ricola explained in her presentation that this lack of acceptance globally has led to Ricola launching its 14-herb drop (containing Stevia) in Panama, where it has proved to be very popular.

On the second day of the conference the focus shifted away from Stevia, to the topic of energy saving and efficiency of production.

Erhard Hilker of Chocotech presented a new energy efficient method for the manufacture of sugar confectionery. The new Ecograv system introduces raw materials into the process with higher total solids (98 per cent), meaning that less water is produced during cooking (if cooking is even required) which needs to be removed.

Julien Mouron of Dumoulin and Dr Rainer Bastian of Driam Anlagenbau both gave presentations on panning and coating equipment, discussing machine design for sugar and sugar free confectionery and new innovations in continuous coating.

The Sweet Tec conference was highly informative and definitely worth a visit. For more information on the conference, I will be reviewing it in the November issue.