The Complete Guide to Gummy Manufacturing

A gummy machine is used to develop gummy products, varying from the timeless bear sweets to different vitamins and supplements. They normally include a cooking unit, depositor, molds, and a cooling part that enables the completed product to set prior to product packaging. Commercial gummy making devices are discovered frequently in mass-production centers. Makers that produce packaged products at scale to satisfy market demands rely on this devices as a cornerstone aspect of their business operations.

What Are Gummies Made Of?

Gummy products, like the well-known gummy bear, consist of water, glucose syrup (from starch to dextrose), sugar, a gelling agent (pectin or gelatin), dyes, flavorings, and citric acid. Nevertheless, there are many other alternate dishes that can satisfy different dietary restrictions too.

Gummy Machine Uses 

Gummy machines can be used to make a variety of confectionary products, including: 

• Gummy Bears: Probably the most popular variety on the market today. These usually come in a variety of assorted flavors in a single package. 
• Other Gummy Shapes: Other popular shapes often include gummy worms, cola bottles, rings, and more. 
• Gummy-based Medical Products: Many vitamins, supplements, and other nutritional aids are produced in gummy form. These products are infused with a medical ingredient designed to provide a supplemental benefit to your diet, lifestyle, or other care prescription. These can also aid people who have difficulty swallowing pills or do not like the taste. 
• Fruit Snacks: These gummies are typically flavored with fruit juice and often shaped like the fruits they are designed to mimic the taste of. 
• Diet-Restricted Gummies: Some individuals, for cultural, health, lifestyle, or spiritual factors, do not consume particular components in their diet plan. These gummies have dishes customized to these demands to serve that consumer base. These might include vegan, kosher, halal, USDA Organic, or other kinds of specialty gummy items.

How Machines Mass-Produce Gummies

Gummies are mass-produced in a factory and packaged accordingly for each product company. The gummy machines make large-quantity batches, one at a time. Batches are blended, deposited, and dried as one. Batch sizes can range from 20,000 to hundreds of thousands. This procedure shares resemblances with softgel production. With softgels, there are 3 primary phases: melting, encapsulation, and drying. Assigning space for drying is critical to both gummy and softgel manufacturing, however is frequently neglected when building a production design. Since a single batch may produce tens of thousands of individual items, it can take around 2-3 workers to handle the total production cycle. This process does not involve the product packaging, nevertheless. That part of the production cycle is finished by packaging makers. Gummy production utilizes a starch or starchless molding process; both using specific machinery. After transferring the product mixture, the molds and gummies are cooled rapidly in a cooling tunnel. Sinofude concentrates on offering devices for starchless production. Once the gummies are expelled from the molds, they are dried on trays for a duration of 24-48 hours till their water activity level has actually dropped to an authorized level for packaging.

Phase 1: Cooking

The production process of adhesives begins with the cooking stage. The raw materials are cooked in a preheated pan until they reach the required temperature, which directly affects the properties of the final product.

This initial mixture is called slurry. Once the slurry has reached the required temperature, it is removed from the pot and placed in a storage mixing tank where the cooking process is stopped. Here, the final ingredients are added, including color, flavor, actives and citric acid.

Note that citric acid adjusts the pH of the slurry so that it "gels". While in the tank, the slurry should be kept warm and continuously mixed to maintain its liquid state until deposited. This stage usually takes 1-2 hours.

Phase 2: Depositing and Cooling

After the cooking stage, the slurry is transferred from the tank to the hopper on top of the tank through a heated pipe. Here, the exact amount of product is deposited in the mold.

Before deposition, the molds are cooled and sprayed with oil. This, along with the flouro coating, cools the chewing gum and releases it from the mold.

After deposition, the mold is sent into a cooling tunnel. This will quickly cool the slurry and solidify. From there, the chewing gum is released from the mold and sent to the tray to dry.

Phase 3: Coating and Quality Control 

The last stage is divided into two parts: coating and quality control. These measures ensure that the chewing gum is ready for packaging.

Coating is a common step in the chewing gum production process. Coating can change the flavor, enhance the appearance, improve the workability of the package, and prevent the gum from sticking together.

Quality control includes any process by which the manufacturer can verify the quality of the final product. These measures can also go into other stages. They can include verifying that the ingredients conform to the correct number, etc.

For example, the most important quality control process between storage and packaging is to measure the level of water activity in the chewing gum. Achieving the correct level is essential to prevent microbial growth and achieve optimal shelf life. This needs to be measured with a water activity meter.

Each manufacturer has its own quality control process to meet the rules and regulations of the industry. Local, federal, and state laws also affect these policies.

With numerous soft candy products developed for many of the world's brands, all production facilities must have sound production and quality control practices in place. Meeting market demands and quality standards is essential.

Ready to Add a Gummy Machine to Your Operations? Let Us Help

Maximizing your return on investment means choosing the right machine for the size of your facility, scope of work and expected growth. You don't need equipment that's too big or too small for current and future operations. In most cases, it's best to purchase equipment with the potential to scale up production to meet the needs of customers at all levels.

To help manufacturers provide the highest quality product possible, Sinofude offers a wide range of equipment options to meet your facility's needs and your company's operations. If you would like to add fudge production to your product offering, replace existing equipment, or if you would like to discuss other issues related to fudge machines, please feel free to contact us.