Fruit jelly babies

Fruit gums are popular with young and old. The main ingredients are sugar, glucose syrup, water, gelling agents (usually gelatine), flavourings, acidifiers, colourings, flavourings and glazing agents.
The fruit gum was invented in 1922 by Johann “Hans” Riegel, a trained candy maker from Bonn (founder of the global company Haribo), who christened them “dancing bears”. His gummy bears quickly became very popular and who doesn’t know the sweet “Goldbären” from Haribo, as the original dancing bears have been called since 1967. The first gummy bears were still made with gum arabic, but this was soon replaced by gelatine.

There is now a wide range of gummy bears from many different manufacturers:

Wine gum and fruit gum
Fruit gums have fruit acid (e.g. citric acid) or lactic acid added to them. Tartaric acid, on the other hand, is used for wine gum. In high quality products this comes from real wine. The use of acidifiers makes the wine and fruit gums more durable and gives them a special flavour.

Fruit juice gummy bears
Fruit juice gummy bears contain a high fruit juice content of often 20-30%. The fruit juice shapes the colour and taste of the fruit juice gummy bears, which can reduce other flavourings and colourings. They have a softer consistency.

Gelatin-free
The gelatine contained in most fruit gums is generally obtained from pig skin and bones. Normal fruit gums are therefore not vegetarian, halal or kosher.
That is why some manufacturers replace gelatine with other gelling agents such as pectin, starch or agar.
However,fruit gums are onlyvegan if the beeswax with which they are often coated so that they do not stick together is also replaced by oil, for example.

Bear?
And, of course, there are no longer just gummy bears, but gummy dinosaurs, worms, fruit, smurfs, etc.

Author: Elisabeth Illgen, mind sweets GmbH