The confectionery industry divides confectionery into three classes: chocolate confectionery, flour confectionery and sugar confectionery. While most people have eaten sugar confectionery at some time, few people know the underlying science. Almost all sugar confectionery was developed not from an understanding of the science but by confectioners working by trial and error. There is one exception to this rule and that is where products have been made to resemble sugar confectionery but are free of sugars. This small area has absorbed more scientific effort than the rest of sugar confectionery put together.
The manufacture of confectionery is not a science-based industry. Confectionery products have traditionally been created by skilled craftsman confectioners working empirically, and scientific understanding of confectionery products has been acquired retroactively. Historically, sugar confectionery does have a link with one of the science-based industries – pharmaceuticals.
Cough sweets
In the 18th century, sugar confectionery products were made by pharmacists as pleasant products because the active pharmaceutical products were unpleasant. The two industries continue to share some technology, such as making sugar tablets and applying panned sugar coatings. This usually applies to cough sweets and similar products. It is a time-served remedy for many of the minor ills that befall us.
Recollect the “Khadi sakhar” or the sugar rocks given by grandmothers to suck on as a remedy for dry cough in kids. History casts sweet confections in a highly complimentary light, and in this context sweet sugar as a health-giving spice. Sugar (sucrose) has long been thought of as a curative in its own right, its health-giving and enhancing properties being handed down through several early cultures. The absolute origins of both confectionery itself and its functional utilisation are lost in the mists of time.
Confectionery techniques
Let us have an overview of confectionery techniques through the latest perspective of functional foods and how they can be applied to functional confectionery, and also some of the challenges that have to be faced. An obsession with sweets, alongside a seemingly high focus on health and wellness, has led to the evolution of the functional confectionery category. ‘Functional’ as applied to confectionery will be defined fairly broadly to mean confectionery with an added health benefit. We already know functional confectioneries on the market in the form of medicated candy with curative ingredients.
There are also products occupying small niches in the market containing active ingredients aimed at specific consumers, for example cough drops or morning sickness candies. However, there have also been considerable developments recently in other, more mass market areas such as low calorie, low fat and sugar free. These products are all designed to provide benefits to distinguish them from standard products, even if specific health claims are not made. The market for functional confectionery is still in its infancy with only a few well-developed sectors. The earliest types of modern functional candies were throat soothers and breath fresheners, or improving oral health or fortified candies.
Vehicle for functional ingredients
Sugar confectionery is an ideal vehicle for certain functional ingredients. It is portable, convenient and many functional concepts are technically feasible. So hard boiled and low boiled are the two varieties which are more feasible depending on the sensitivity of the functional ingredient. It is true that confectionery can offer the convenience, taste acceptability and affordability and also it is important to choose a concept that the consumer can identify with. However there are also concerns about over-consumption in relation to fortified confectionery aimed at children.
Multivitamin preparations in the form of candy may be highly attractive to children, and an attractive vehicle for administering such preparations when deemed necessary. There is the possibility of overconsumption where such fortified sweets are self-administered. Consumer understanding is therefore one key to success. The less consumers understand a product’s underlying concepts, the more likely it is that only a niche market can be aimed at. A crucial part of a product identity is its ‘proposition,’ that is, what it can do for the consumer.
Functional confectionery
Many confectionery-like products are available to cure ailments such as cough and sore throat. These products are available in most countries of the world. Compared to mainstream confectionery, the market for functional confectionery is small but growing as new types are brought onto the market. Confectionery has traditionally contained the sugar, sucrose, as its characterising ingredient. This acts as a sweetener but it has many other technical virtues which make it a very versatile ingredient for this type of product.
Confectionery can be made ‘functional’ either by addition of functional ingredients, or by substituting existing ingredients. Examples of both approaches can be found on the market today. The technical attributes of sucrose can sometimes be difficult to replace using alternative ingredients. Nevertheless, sugar-free confectioneries are increasingly being launched, usually as calorie reduced products. The range of concepts found in functional confectionery products remains fairly limited at the present time. There are, however, many new concepts that could be developed and which are feasible from a technical standpoint.
Consumer understanding of the concepts behind functional products is often limited. In many cases the consumer will need to be educated about recent scientific findings. Advertisement about concepts may lack credibility in the eyes of consumers as being too commercially orientated.
Appropriateness of confectionery
Claims in advertising and on product packaging are often prevented because food regulations are generally restrictive in the area of claims. Another factor, which could hold back development of functional confectionery, is doubt as to the appropriateness of confectionery for this purpose. Although certain medicinal candies are well accepted by the consumer, in general there is only limited experience of consumer reaction to other types of functional confectionery.
Confectionery is generally associated in the consumer’s mind with pleasure and indulgence, and so many confectionery formats may be inappropriate for functional concepts. It seems likely that the market for functional confectionery will continue to develop in the coming years into novel areas as consumers progressively understand the rationale behind functional products.
