Currently browsing posts about: Candy

ConfectionaryNews.com has collected articles and videos into a Special Edition: The future of 3D printing in confectionery

Hershey tips 3D printing to take off like the microwave oven did in the 80s – with ultra-customized designs a possibility in retail stores. Katjes subsidiary the Magic Candy Factory is already making waves with its 3D sugar confectionery printer, allowing personalized designs. Now others, such as Barry Callebaut, are entering the fray. This special explores what the future holds for 3D printing in the confectionery industry.

• Katjes’s Magic Candy Factory installs 3D candy printers at Warner Bros. World: Katjes-owned, Magic Candy Factory has partnered with Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi to install multiple 3D candy printers across its theme park, which opens in April 2018… Read
• byFlow to focus solely on 3D printing for food as it sells 100th printer: byFlow has changed its business model focusing solely on 3D printers for food as it sells its 100th printer… Read
• Hershey continues to explore the possibilities of 3D printing: Hershey says it is continuing to explore the possibilities of 3D chocolate printing partnering with a ‘world-renowned culinary school’ and funding two students to focus on exploring real-world applications of the technology… Read
• Elephant-shaped gum: Wacker highlights 3D printer capabilities: Wacker has demonstrated the personalized shapes it can produce for candy, which turns into chewing gum, on its 3D printer at ProSweets 2017… Watch now
• 3D-printed candy selfies coming to theme parks: Katjes-owned company the Magic Candy Factory has introduced 3D Sweets Selfies, which it hopes will open up new channels for the industry at events and amusement parks… Watch now
• FOOD VISION 2017: Food evangelists, 3D printed selfies and the importance of ingredient diversity: Industry movers and shakers gathered in London last week for Food Vision discussing the some of the hottest trends and issues affecting the industry today. Here are some highlights if you couldn’t be there… Display
• 3D food printing: Precision and accuracy an obstacle to fulfilling potential: Printing precision and accuracy, process productivity and the production of colourful, multi-flavour, multi-structure products remain the biggest challenges to wider industry adoption of 3D food printing. .. Read

In honor of today’s sugar rush, I know you want to know this.

From Clair Robins comes this interactive map of what she calculates as the most popular Halloween candy in each state.

Click on the state….  And note: virtual candy has no sugar or calories.

Source: CandyStore.com.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

It’s a big day for candy sales.

Just for fun, I Googled “healthy Valentine’s Day” just to see what would come up.   Lots, it turns out.

Here’s my favorite.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Confectioners.com went into the Open Secrets database to take a look at how candy companies spent their campaign contributions.

Mondelez, which owns these brands of chocolates: Milka, Toblerone, Caramilk, Cadbury:

Hershey’s:

Open Secrets is at https://www.opensecrets.org/.  It’s worth learning how to use it so you can dig up sweet tidbits like these.

Aren’t you happy that it’s that sweet, gooey time of year again?

As Julia Belluz of Vox points out

Candy and Halloween didn’t always go hand in hand.  It wasn’t until the 1950s that that candy industry started to push the stuff as a way to boost flagging fall sales.

The candy industry would love you to think:

• We eat so little candy that it makes no difference to our health.
• Kids who eat candy have healthier body weights than kids who don’t.
• Chocolate is a health food.

Kids do love candy, as this marketing report tells us.  I’ll bet these favorites have everything to do with advertising budgets.

Does candy have a place in healthy diets?  Sure, but in very small and occasional amounts.

Good luck getting through tonight’s trick-or-treat.

Happy Halloween, everyone.

This week’s sugar item #3

John Downs, the president of the National Confectioners Association has an editorial (note: sponsored) in Politico announcing the NCA’s new campaign to convince Americans of the benefits of eating candy.

Candy is a special treat that has played an important role in cultural traditions, seasonal celebrations and family occasions here in the U.S. and around the world. But some consumers might not know that there is much more that goes into this honest, affordable, fun and transparent treat.

What more?  The economic benefits, of course.  Here’s the Infographic:

The press release highlights the benefits.

The confectionery industry directly employs 55,000 people in the United States, and more than 400,000 jobs in agriculture, retail, transportation and other industries rely in part on the sale of confections for their livelihood.  For every job that is created in confectionery another seven are supported in related industries, which means that candy drives a multiplier effect of 1:7 or an impact of 700 percent.

Sugar?  Calories?  Tooth decay?  Obesity?

Never mind.

I was surprised by FoodNavigator-USA’s story about “SmartCandy,”—a “vitamin-infused snack.”

Could the name and contents of this candy be violating the FDA’s “jelly bean” rule?

The “jelly bean” rule refers to FDA’s fortification policy,* which aims to discourage food and beverage makers from adding vitamins to “foods of minimal nutritional value” (a.k.a. junk foods) so they can be marketed as healthy.

The policy is explicit.  The FDA does not consider it appropriate to add nutrients to candies and beverages.

Here’s what the article says about what’s in it:

Smartcandy is formulated with a blend of Vitamin A for eye health, three B vitamins to support converting sugar and carbohydrates into sustained energy, and vitamin C for immunity. The trans fat-, high-fructose corn syrup-free candies come in four varieties: sweet and sour gummies; and Froot, a proprietary snack with a candy shell and a layer of yogurt encasing a strawberry or orange center.

Here’s the Nutrition Facts label (thanks to a reader for sending).

Here’s what the website says Orange Froot candy can do:

This is the visionary leader of the snacking world, it’s the one they listen to and admire. He can make a three point shot with his eyes closed, build the best fort you’ve ever seen, or solve an algebra question like it was a nursery rhyme, this flavor packed snack will push you to achieve anything!

If SmartCandy can get away with this, won’t Coca-Cola and Pepsi be next?

Candy is candy and has an place in kids’s diets—occasionally.  But a health food that makes kids do better in school?  I’d like to see the evidence for that.

FDA: take a look please.

*Thanks to Michael Jacobson for forwarding.

Update, April 13: The New York State Attorney General has filed a complaint.

The Union of Concerned Sciences has produced this infographic in celebration of Halloween.

It’s not Halloween parents should be worrying about.  It’s every day!

The UCS graphic is based on data from 2010-2011.  The 2011-2012 data are just in and show some improvement.  Teenage boys merely consume an average of 152 grams of sugars a day, down a bit from a year ago.

Men, overall, consume 135 grams on average, and women consume 106 grams.  The average is 120 grams.

This works out to about 20% of total calories, at least twice the amount recommended.

Boo!