Cooking up a storm in functional ingredients
With the health boom showing no signs of slowing, Confectionery Production explores how cutting-edge cooking and depositing technology, coupled with the expertise of machinery suppliers, is boosting efficiency in fortified candies. Daisy Phillipson reports
Much like the wider food industry, the functional and fortified confectionery market is being driven by growing consumer preference for healthier, better-for-you options. According to market research firm, FMCG Gurus, the pandemic accelerated demand, with the company’s research finding that 72 per cent of global consumers agree they have taken a more proactive approach to addressing their health as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Functional products cover a broad array of options, with sugar candies emerging as a favoured vehicle for active ingredients. FMCG Gurus research shows that 85 per cent of proactive consumers purchase functional products to some extent, the most popular format being food and drink. In response, machinery manufacturers within the confectionery sector have been updating their cooking and depositing equipment to meet the increased need for hygiene and efficiency.
Equipment group Baker Perkins has long been a leading innovator in this arena, continuing to expand and update its systems for functional and medicated candy. Among its latest developments is the ServoForm Mini+.
The starch-free depositor meets the increasing demand for high-viscosity recipes and centre-filled gummies, particularly liquid centre fills, by including a mould lift feature that synchronises raising and lowering the moulds with the depositing cycle.
The mould lift feature ensures accurate positioning and a clean separation of the thin strand of viscous syrup between one deposit and the next, which is significant for centre-filling to keep the filling and casing separate. The development of the ServoForm Mini+ follows the recent introduction of the ServoForm Flexi starch-free depositor, which benefits from outputs of up to 250,000 pieces per hour. Additionally, the depositing system goes hand-in-hand with Rousselot’s SiMoGel fast-setting gelatin product, with both companies combining their innovations to create gummy caps, a delivery format for nutraceutical and pharmaceutical products that combines a chewy casing with a liquid centre-filling.
One of the challenges of operating within this area is preserving the efficacy of active ingredients. To overcome this hurdle, the filling is prepared and deposited at an ambient temperature to avoid heat degradation of high-value active ingredients. It is also vital that the filling and casing streams do not mix during the depositing process, with Baker Perkins highlighting how this was a major driver behind the introduction of the company’s ServoForm Mini+.
Alongside the technologies required to produce functional confectionery, the security of supply is paramount in today’s ever-changing environment. With this in mind, packaging and processing group TNA Solutions recently announced the addition of a third manufacturing site in Australia, at Wetherill Park, Sydney.
As highlighted by the firm, since acquiring NID in 2017, it has been updating existing technologies while retaining reliability within the candy sector. TNA creates and integrates complete processing and packaging solutions, including everything from kitchen operations, starch conditioning, mogul tray handling, de-moulding, product cleaning and finishing, to depositing, distribution, packaging and case packing. The latest expansion aims to meet the increasing demands of the global confectionery and nutraceuticals sector.
Partnership is key
Winkler und Dünnebier Süßwarenmaschinen (WDS), which offers a vast array of confectionery production machines, has also established itself as a specialist in technologies for the production of active OTC sweets, supplements and nutraceuticals through its sweetOTC division. As highlighted by the business, the market is still young and therefore presents manufacturers with a wide range of opportunities and growth potential. When it comes to creating candies with active ingredients, hygiene is paramount to prevent cross-contamination.
To cater to this requirement, WDS presents depositor systems made of hygienic stainless steel. And thanks to the EasyClean design of WDS plants and the use of adapted service trolleys, it is easy to change parts that come into contact with the mass as well as to completely replace a depositor system when it comes to, for example, external cleaning or for a large variety of products. Alongside hygiene, seeking a technology supplier with the knowledge and capabilities to develop a product is vital.
Through sweetOTC, WDS offers customised solutions in a GMP-qualified design, covering the entire value chain – from brainstorming and the development of individual confectionery products to specially adapted production processes.
For its part, Hänsel Processing is also able to assist manufacturers in the development of candies with active ingredients, with its processing systems capable of handling supplements and nutraceuticals in both liquid and powder form. The equipment specialist notes how it pays particular attention to the timing, ensuring sensitive raw materials are added as late as possible to avoid thermal stress and degradation of the active components.
As regards new products, the firm’s CandyLab offers a continuous lab line with the expertise of its experienced technologists. In regard to processing equipment, the company’s fully-integrated plant, the Sucroliner, processes sweets masses with a low residual water content. Emphasis has been made on the hygienic design of the Industry 4.0-ready process plant with its stainless steel execution and fully-integrated CIP cleaning. Elsewhere, Tanis Confectionery (Wouter Tanis pictured below) has established itself as a leading authority in the functional gummy and jelly sector, designing and developing efficient solutions for the creation of candy and other sweets with active components.
Examples of these include vitamins for boosting the immune system, calcium to help strengthen bones, melatonin to promote better sleep and collagen for improving skin. The demand for cannabis candy is also growing due to the associated benefits of ingesting the plant’s active component, CBD. Tanis notes how gummies and jellies can also be enriched with natural fruit extracts such as elderberry and cranberry, or botanicals like turmeric and valerian.
Enhancing gummies calls for manufacturing equipment that allows highly accurate dosing and depositing. No matter what the desired outcome may be, Tanis offers a range of processing lines for the manufacturing of functional gummies and jellies – from the entry-level starchless 400S NS to the fully-integrated 800 Robotic NS with capacities of up to 290,000 pieces per hour. In tandem with its technological innovations, another integral component of Tanis’ development in recent years has been its Tanis Innovation Centre in the Netherlands.
The facility, which opened in 2020, boasts a pilot line and state-of-the-art lab equipment for testing. Concurrently, the company’s food technologists are readily available to guide manufacturers through the entire process, from assisting with recipe refinement to instructing customers on production line operation. Navigating the complexities of developing candy with active ingredients necessitates partnering with a machinery supplier experienced in this field, as it is crucial for achieving success.
Another innovation in this segment is the NutraFlash, an advanced turnkey line for the starchless production of functional gummy and jelly products, from processing and packaging business Syntegon under its subsidiary Makat Candy Technology. “In starchless production, jelly masses must achieve a high dry substance content to eliminate the need for moisture removal via starch after depositing. Nutraceutical production also calls for high dosing and depositing accuracy to ensure the right supplement content in the gummies – throughout the entire production process,” explains Dr. Sandra Link, product manager at Makat Candy Technology. “Our new turnkey line NutraFlash meets these requirements.
Syntegon’s Makat team claimed honours at last year’s World Confectionery Conference. Pic: Franziska Engelbarts
Whether during dissolving, depositing, cooling or demoulding, the solution’s holistic turnkey approach ensures a highly reliable, closed production for consistent product quality. This reliability is key during nutraceutical production.”
Green machine
As consumer preferences continue to evolve, the demand for edible cannabis candies is on the rise in regions where it is legalised. However, this presents unique challenges not only in product formulation but also in machinery processing. Equipment manufacturers continue to develop solutions to accommodate the specific requirements of processing THC-infused candies, ensuring both efficacy and compliance with regulatory standards.
To successfully launch a new product or improve an existing process, it’s important to test and improve the production. Machinery business Latini offers a range of lab-scale equipment that is ideal in this context, allowing edibles manufacturers to experiment and get results needed to scale up to production levels.
An example is the company’s Candy K-Art, which incorporates all of the main lab equipment including the cooker, cooling table, pulling machine, drop roller and coating pan, together on a single platform. Additionally, Latini’s lab depositor LLD-15s is ideal for the production of high-quality products in a limited space, including gummies, hard candies, dual-coloured, centre-filled, CBD and THC infused products. Demonstrating its capabilities within this arena is leading confectionery machinery business Loynds, which recently helped SunDrift to transform its production of cannabis infused candies with the Loynds CD05 Laboratory Depositing Machine.
SunDrift started out as a husband-and-wife duo who experimented with making hard candy edibles during the pandemic. As demand grew, they needed to upgrade to commercial-scale production, without losing the unique taste and character. After visiting the UK and seeing the system in action, SunDrift opted for the Loynds CD05 Laboratory Depositing Machine to automate and streamline the manufacturing of their full range of THC infused candies. As well as its ability to deposit perfectly formed candies at an accurate dosage, they opted for the system thanks to its small footprint and capability to achieve production volumes of up to 600 kg per shift.
The machine can deposit both candy and jelly products and is able to produce one- and two-colour 3D designs. Once SunDrift’s chief product officer, David Hollands, had received training, Loynds was able to deliver the machine to the company in Massachusetts, USA, and provide remote assistance to get it up and running.
Hollands later passed the training onto the rest of the SunDrift team. Thanks to the Loynds CD05 Laboratory Depositing Machine, SunDrift has significantly expanded its production while securing its edibles in over 50 stores within the Massachusetts market. “I spent a little over a year trying to find the perfect machine for our hard candy edibles start-up. I needed a machine that could make both hard candies and gummies, provide consistent dosing and fit our budget,” explains Hollands. “At the same time, since I had never done anything like this before, it needed to be something approachable in difficulty for me and the team. Fortunately, we found Loynds and their CDO5 depositor which ticked all the boxes. As I was totally new to this industry, there was a learning curve. But with the training I received onsite at Loynds we quickly got it all figured out.”
