Corbion: Balancing sourness and stickiness in candies amid “intense” flavor demand

28 Jun 2024 --- Consumers today crave unique and intense flavors in their sweets, such as sour candies, says Willy van Arkel-van Arendonk, senior manager of Business Development & Product Management at Corbion. The trend is driving innovation among confectionery manufacturers to ensure the candies have the desired texture and stay “visually attractive and stable” longer by avoiding the stickiness that reduces consumer acceptance. 

Formulating highly acidic confectionery with sour flavors comes with quality challenges, such as “sugar inversion,” which causes the stickiness when consumers open the wrapper of their favorite confection.

“No one likes sticky candy, so keeping that ideal texture, whether in hard or soft candies, is really important,” Arendonk tells Food Ingredients First.

“One big challenge is sugar inversion — that’s when the candy gets too sticky and doesn’t look good because the pH level is too low.”

Maintaining texture is also tricky, especially in soft candies, where gelatin can break down. Also, candy formulators often struggle to get the sourness “just right” and evenly distributed throughout the candy, which is crucial for that “perfect sour punch.”

Tackling sugar inversion
A study on the stickiness in foods reveals that sugar inversion in candies can lead to lowered product yield, operational problems, equipment wear and fire hazards. It adversely affects the candies’ appearance and depends on the type of acid used. 

While classic fruit flavors still hold a special place in consumers’ hearts, today’s generation craves something more adventurous and fun, says Arendonk.When the relative humidity of the storage environment exceeds the ideal levels at which confectionery products can be kept, stickiness sets in. Adsorption of moisture by confectionery products results in a lowered viscosity that leads not only to stickiness but also to the collapse of the product structure, explains the research.

Usually, hard-panned candy confectioners incorporate sourness in the center of candy to avoid stickiness spots and a “sweaty” appearance caused by moisture uptake when acid is applied to the candy exterior, underscores Corbion.

“Incorporating acid in the candy’s center works, but results in a delayed, or slower, flavor release." Moreover, the fat coating used in most acid powders to avoid hygroscopic sugar inversion is prone to oxidation and off notes. The coating is also susceptible to melting when subjected to higher temperatures and humidity.

To tackle these challenges, Corbion formulates Purac Powder Max, a highly stable, non-hygroscopic acid powder that enables confectionery producers to incorporate acid powder throughout the layers of hard-panned candy to provide faster flavor release and deliver sourness at “multiple points.”

“Due to its particle size, Purac Powder Max Fine is great for creating new, exciting sour flavors in both hard and soft candies. It helps the sour taste come through quickly and last longer, without causing the candy to get sticky or unevenly sour,” explains Arendonk.

The ingredient is stable and does not require a fat coating, allowing sour confections to maintain their fresh qualities longer on the shelf.

Optimizing sourness 
Corbion has also developed a Sourness and Stability Calculator tool to optimize sourness intensity and product stability in confectionery, Arendonk tells us.

“The Corbion Sourness and Stability Calculator is a super helpful online tool that lets candy makers test their formulas quickly. By plugging in the ingredients and settings, it shows how sour, stable and pH-balanced the final product will be, saving a lot of R&D time.”

Corbion’s sourness and stability calculator performs complex physical chemistry calculations based on the equilibrium state of candy formulations.The tool is a calculation program to support hard candy producers by providing the required sourness level while managing the pH and thereby controlling the sugar inversion of candy. The program helps manufacturers formulate candies by performing complex (physical chemistry) calculations based on the equilibrium state of these formulations.

“Additionally, Corbion’s buffered lactic acid solutions help provide sourness at higher pH levels, reducing the chances of sugar inversion and making sure the texture stays just right, even for soft candies,” she adds.

Emergence of plant-based ingredients
As confectionery taste and texture innovations proliferate, Arendonk expects plant-based ingredients to gain prominence in the future. 

“More and more people are looking for plant-based options, so alternatives to gelatin, like pectin and starch, are becoming really popular. Pectin, which comes from fruits like citrus and apples, makes gummies that are soft and have a great mouthfeel, perfect for vegans and vegetarians.”

“Using pectin can be tricky because you have to keep the pH just right to avoid problems like pre-gelling. Corbion’s Purac buffered acids help maintain the perfect pH balance, even when aiming for super sour flavors,” she details.

Arendonk also observes a growing trend of adding minerals and other nutrients to candies, making them “not just tasty but also a bit healthier.” 

“This trend is especially popular with younger consumers looking for snacks with added benefits,” she concludes.

By Insha Naureen