Sugar-free candies and lollipops for a fast-growing market

Sugar-free hard candies and lollipops can now be produced on APV Baker depositing plant, in the same wide variety as conventional candies and lollipops, tapping a huge market for products acceptable within a healthy diet and lifestyle.

One, two, three or four colours; multi-component solid, centre-filled, layered and striped candies; popular flavours such as milk and crème - there's vast potential for sugar-free product development.

The market for sugar-free confectionery is growing rapidly as consumers' concern about diet and lifestyle leads them to seek alternatives to conventional sugar-based candy. The trend towards sugar-free confectionery has now taken hold in all global markets. In recent months companies in the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and the Far East have invested in sugar-free production equipment from APV Baker.

The use of low calorie sweeteners that don't cause dental caries and are suitable for diabetics provide significant marketing advantages.

Most new candy or lollipop depositing plants supplied by APV Baker now have a sugar-free capability, and it's a simple matter to add a retrofit package to existing lines.

Sugar-free production involves blending and cooking a sugar-free material, or polyol, as a sugar replacement. Isomalt from Palatinit is a typical polyol used successfully by APV Baker customers: this has a lower solubility, higher boiling point and higher specific heat capacity than sucrose, and therefore requires cooking to a higher temperature. A secondary vacuum evaporator is added to a conventional Microfilm cooking system in order to achieve this.

The Microfilm cooker is regarded as the industry standard for high boiled candies and lollipops. Its rotor has hinged blades which sweep the inner surface of the tube: the product is spread in a very thin film, and moved through the cooking tube by a combination of gravity and the design of the hinged blades.

Isomalt is made exclusively from real sugar, and has physical properties similar to sugar, resulting in confectionery products that have a texture and flavour similar to those made with sucrose. Palatinit has more than 20 years experience in manufacturing and developing Isomalt, and in processing confectionery applications.

Manufacturers can choose an Isomalt variant tailor-made for each sugar-free application. Isomalt ST is widely used as a sugar replacer in hard candies due to its low hygroscopicity. This provides excellent storage stability to confectionery, meaning that individual wrapping is not required - candies can be packed loose, for example in flip-top boxes.

The Microfilm cooker and secondary vacuum evaporator used in sugar-free cooking was proven in the APV Baker Innovation Centre at Peterborough, where production scale equipment is used for trial and development work by customers from around the world.

From multinationals with specific ideas, and needing batches for test marketing; to newcomers to the industry with an open mind about the type of confectionery they might market, the Innovation Centre provides an unrivalled resource of ideas, process expertise and experience.

Every variety of sugared and sugar-free deposited confectionery can be made here, from ingredients through to the wrapped product - if necessary, customers use their own ingredients to achieve an exact match in end product.

Sugar-free candy is one of a series of innovations from APV Baker to provide new end-product possibilities. These include multi-colour depositing with unique colour and flavour combinations - for example centre-filled, layered, striped products and 3D shapes.