(l–r) SugarSin's Josefin and Anna; Alfonso from Fini; and Annett from Trolli spoke to Claire Rowan (r)
Claire Rowan is group technical editor, magazines, FoodBev Media. This is a personal blog and views expressed are her own.
Although in many countries a contradiction in terms, healthy confectionery – or at least more healthy confectionery than the traditional offering – was the theme on many of the stands at ISM in Cologne this week.
Exhibitors were jostling to attract the attention of the 35,000 plus trade visitors to the international confectionery show.
Among the vibrant animal character sweets populating the Trolli stand were high vitamin Trolli Saft Michel gums. With cheeky grins, big feet and floppy hats, the St Michel figures are designed to stand upright, thanks to Trolli’s new multi-stage manufacturing technology that allows the chewy candy to be built up in layers of different materials. It is the red jelly caps that are filled with fruit juice and impart a multitude of vitamins – to both kids’ and mothers’ delight. In flavours such as orange, apricot, apple, lemon, mango, banana, guava, nectarine, grape, mandarin, peach, passion fruit, kiwi, papaya, grapefruit and pineapple, there is plenty to suit most tastes.
The novel 3D Saft Michel gums nestled beside Trolli Fast Fruit fruit-shaped jellies containing 40% fruit, including the juice, pulp and extracts. In colourful bags, flashed with ‘40% fruit’, the sweets are available in pear, lemon, banana, raspberry, peach and strawberry flavours. (listen to the podcast on www.foodbev.com
SugarSin, which was at the show for the first time, was introducing its delicious more healthy, candies that are targeted at the premium and rather more adult market.
“All our jellies are free of palm oil, beeswax, gelatine and gluten, so are suitable for vegans and other consumers seeking more sophisticated,” said director, Anna Nilsson, who with her sister Josefin Deckel founded SugarSin by importing innovative confectionery from their Scandinavian home and Germany.
The all-natural Happy Jellies are made with real fruit juices and include Caramel Fizz: creamy caramel gums, sprinkled with sour sugar crystals; Sour Shots: juicy jellies infused with real pack and wild strawberry juice, topped with sour sugar crystals; and Wild Hearts: jellies infused with sweet nectar from real raspberry and blueberry juice.
The gelatine-free message used by SugarSin and many other exhibitors taps into the growing vegetarian trend and demonstrates the extensive development work going into formulating with sugar foams, pectin or starch to perfect the finished product and replicate the non-sticky, short chewy bite provided by gelatine.
Katjes’ stand was blazoned with the words ‘I love veggie’ its vegetarian friendly range of confection; and Fini of Spain, which was also launching many novel new marshmallow products with crunchy outer coatings, was launching its Pucks gelatine-free balls. With chewy centres based on a starch formulation instead of gelatine and a crunchy sugar coating, Pucks are available in strawberry, water melon, lemon, tutti frutti, and raspberry flavours in brightly coloured, flat-bottomed dome shaped ‘balls’.
Straying off the healthy theme for one second – the marshmallows being offered on the Fini stand were the result of a new ‘tumbling’ technology that the company has developed, which allows a thin yet crunchy coating of fizzy coca-cola flavoured fine sugar crystals or chocolate fine sugar crystals, for example, to be built-up on the marshmallows to create a novel sensation of textures in the mouth.
Back to the aisles for a taste of some healthy snacks I’ve spotted!
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