Gummy bears: history, production, ingredients, and calories

Small, colorful, and sweet, gummy bears are not only popular with children. A statistical survey shows that around 6 million Germans eat fruit gummies and wine gummies several times a week. Almost 12 million do so several times a month. We like them best in their most famous form as Goldbears. But what are these delicious sweets made of, who invented them, and can you make gummy bears yourself?

1. What are gummy bears?

Gummy bears are fruit gummies. They are shaped like bears and are only about 2.1 centimeters tall. The bears are a special type of wine gum. They come in many colors and flavors. Alongside chocolate in its many varieties, fruit gummies in the shape of bears are among the most popular sweets in the world. The rainbow-colored bears even have their own TV series. The Gummi Bears series was a huge success in the 1980s. The theme song is still in the ears of fans today and has almost 50 million clicks on YouTube. Even the youngest viewers, who weren't even born at the time, still watch the series today.

2. The history of the invention of gummy bears

The small rubber bears marked the beginning of the triumphant advance of all kinds of wine gum figures. Smurfs, dragons, snakes, tigers, smiley faces, and much more are made from this raw material. Fruit gum sweets were invented more than 100 years ago in Germany.

It all started with hard candies

No name is more closely associated with the history of gummy bears than Haribo. And with good reason, as the company is considered to be the inventor of this sweet treat. It was Hans Riegel from Bonn who founded his own confectionery company in 1920. He had previously worked in a pastry shop, but was very unhappy there. Without further ado, he began experimenting in his kitchen with a copper kettle and a marble slab. The result was hard, transparent candies. His only employee, his wife Gertrud, delivered the rather unspectacular candies by bicycle. 

There were no gummy bears at that time, but there was already a name that is still on everyone's lips today: Haribo. The company name is composed of the name of the founder and his hometown: HAns RIegel from BOnn = Haribo.

The path to soft gummy bears

Since the candies did not sell as well as Hans Riegel had expected, he continued his experiments. Now, soft, gelatin-based candies were to conquer the market. He also came up with a special shape: dancing bears. The shape was inspired by the dancing acts performed by trained bears at fairs and folk festivals, which were very popular at the time.

Gummy bears are based on traditional Turkish and Japanese recipes using corn and rice starch. Hans Riegel's bears were made soft using gelatin, not rice or corn starch. However, it is unclear today whether he knew the secret of the soft, gummy sweets from the Far East. The author of Candy: The Sweet History, Beth Kimmerle, shows in her book that although the use of gelatin was an innovation in the history of candy, the softness of the dancing bears was not.

Kimmerle also explains that Riegel's gummy bears had predecessors in Europe. Chewable sweets were available in Great Britain from 1909 onwards in the form of wine gums (without alcohol) and also as Gundrops such as corn-based jujubes in 1920 and pectin-based Chuckles in 1922. Nevertheless, it is probably thanks to Hans Riegel and the Haribo company that gummy bears are so popular today. The dancing bears and bright colors meant that Haribo already had 400 employees at the beginning of World War II.

From dancing bear to golden bear

World War II marked a significant turning point in the history of gummy bears and the Haribo company. Hans Riegel himself died in 1945. His two sons were taken prisoner. The company shrunk to around 30 employees. But after their imprisonment, Hans Junior and Paul rolled up their sleeves and rebuilt the gummy bear empire. The bears were still rather slim and lifelike. It was not until 1960, when Haribo marketed its gummy bears throughout Europe, that they became rounder and more appealing to children. In 1975, they also changed their name from "kleine Gummibärchen" (little gummy bears) to the "Goldbären" (gold bears) we know today.

The gummy bears are internationally

 The huge success of Haribo's gummy bears naturally attracted many other companies, which began to produce gummy animals and other shapes. The sweet fruit gummies experienced a real boom, especially in America. In the 1980s, American gummy manufacturers such as Jelly Belly Company and German companies Trolli, Schwarzwald-Frucht, and Heide entered the market. More and more shapes, colors, and flavors were added to the first seven types of fruit gummies. In addition to strawberry, raspberry, pineapple, orange, lemon, and apple, cola flavor and special varieties such as blackberry and mango conquered the taste buds of connoisseurs.

Today, the number of gummy treats available is almost impossible to keep track of. Gelatin-free, vegan, sour, and now even vegetable-based gummies offer such variety that there is something to suit every taste.

3. The production of gummy bears 

The production of gummy bears is no secret. The gelatin is dissolved with all the other ingredients. Gelatin is needed to give the fruit gum sweets their consistency, making them soft and chewable. The dissolved ingredients are then placed in negative molds that have been pressed with a master mold in starch. At Haribo, the molds containing the smooth cornstarch are called powder boxes. The starch ensures that nothing sticks and that the gummy bears can be easily removed from the molds after the mixture has set in special drying rooms. At this point, they are essentially finished, but there is one more step before the Goldbears and other fruity treats end up in the bag. Oil or wax is used as a release agent to prevent the soft bears from sticking together.

Detailed process of manufacturing gummy bears

A slightly more complicated but more authentic method is to make gummy bears using invert sugar. The process is similar to a laboratory experiment and is not quite as practical for quick production at home. It involves four steps: making the invert sugar, producing the base mixture, coloring and flavoring it, and shaping it.

1. Production of invert sugar

Invert sugar is made from sucrose, i.e., simple table sugar from sugar beets or sugar cane. During the production of invert sugar, sucrose is broken down into fructose and glucose. Neither form of sugar crystallizes, which is important for the production of gummy bears. Sucrose is mixed with tartaric acid (hence the term "wine gum") and water for the splitting process. The invert sugar is then produced by stirring continuously at a temperature of no more than 70 degrees Celsius.

2. Preparing the base mixture for the gummy bears

To make the base mixture, first soak the gelatin in water and allow it to swell. This takes about 15 minutes. In addition to the invert sugar, a second sugar solution is made from sucrose and water, which is boiled at just over 100 degrees Celsius. The gelatin is also melted, but the temperature must not exceed 75 degrees Celsius. The sugar solution, invert sugar, and gelatin are then mixed together. The mixture is now ready to be poured into the mold.

 3. Coloring and flavoring

At this point, the gummy bear mixture still tastes only of sugar and is transparent. One more step is needed to give the colorful bears their color and flavor. Now the flavors in the form of fruit flavorings (natural or artificial) and the colors (in the form of fruit juice or food coloring) are added to the mixture. Citric acid ensures the stability and intensity of the colors as well as the shelf life.

4. Shapes of gummy bears

The slightly cooled mixture, with the foam removed, can now be poured into the molds. The industry uses large boxes for this purpose, but on a small scale, molds for gummy bears, chocolates, or even an ice cube tray will suffice.

After solidifying, the finished gold bears or other shapes of this delicious treat are placed in bags and sent to stores.

 4. The ingredients of gummy bears

The classic ingredients of gummy bears are glucose syrup, sugar, dextrose, and gelatin. Citric acid and flavorings are also added. The color of the gummy bears is determined by different fruit preparations and caramel syrup.

Incidentally, since there is no fruit in the world that can be used to produce blue color naturally, there are no blue Goldbears. Smurfs and other blue fruit gummies are colored with artificial dyes. Due to the gelatin, fruit gummies not only contain a lot of sugar, but also relatively high amounts of protein. They do not contain any fat, but also very little fiber.

Haribo is still the market leader in gummy bears today, but it is no longer the only manufacturer. As a result, there are also gummy snacks that are not made with gelatin and other animal additives. The vegan versions of fruit gummies are made with cornstarch. The halal gummy bear version is made with beef gelatin. Low-sugar or sugar-free versions without artificial flavors and preservatives are also very popular.

 5. How many calories do gummy bears have?

Like all sweets, gummy bears contain calories. And quite a lot of them, too, because gummy bears are real sugar bombs. Three small Goldbears contain about one sugar cube. A 300-gram package contains between 900 and 1,200 kilocalories. The classic Goldbears contain 368 kilocalories per 100 grams. Sugar-reduced varieties contain fewer kilocalories.

Gummy bears contain no fat, which many companies advertise as a selling point. But no matter which gold bears disappear into your mouth, these little sweets are fattening and should only be enjoyed in moderation. Nutrition experts recommend eating no more than ten gummy bears a day. These delicious bears are a treat. Even vitamin-enriched gummy fruits cannot replace healthy fruit and vegetables.

6. Why is gelatin necessary in gummy bears?

Gelatin is a mixture of various animal proteins. The main component is denatured collagen. It is obtained from the connective tissue of animals. Cattle and pigs in particular produce this collagen. In Germany, most collagen and therefore gelatin is obtained from pigs. This is the most cost-effective method. But why do gummy bears need gelatin? This is due to the properties of the substance, which make gummy bears what they are: gummy.

Gelatin dissolves in water at 50 degrees Celsius and swells up. When cooled, it forms a gel. This gives gummy bears their jelly-like, firm consistency without being hard. The gelatin is then reheated in the mouth. This allows young and old alike to let the juicy bears melt in their mouths. Vegan gummy bears, on the other hand, have a slightly sticky feeling in the mouth due to the starch they contain, as starch does not have this thermoreversible property. This is why vegan fruit gummies stick strongly to the teeth when eaten.

Incidentally, gelatin is not only found in fruit gum candies. The protein-based carrier material is also used in many other areas as a base material and binding agent. Gelatin can be hidden in pureed fruits and vegetables, in pastries, in cold soups, or even in aspic dishes.

How is pork gelatin obtained? 

Unfortunately, the process of extracting gelatin is not as appealing as the final product used in confectionery. The raw material for gelatin is skin and connective tissue from animals such as pigs and cattle, but also poultry and fish. More than 70 percent of gelatin is made from pigs in industrial production. Manufacturers use only pork rinds for this purpose. In the past, people often wondered whether there were bones in gummy bears. This is almost never the case, because only cattle bones are used to obtain the raw materials for gelatin.

The process of extracting gelatin is quite complicated, but after three days, the finished gelatin powder from the pork rinds is ready. The raw material is freed from inorganic substances, crushed, and degreased. Calcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, and calcium fluoride are then removed in a maceration process. At this stage, the intermediate product is called ossein. Depending on the raw material used by the industry, the substance is then treated with acid or alkali.

Acid treatment is typical for extracting gelatin from pork rinds. The ossein is treated with sulfuric and hydrochloric acid and then neutralized again. Once the salts have been washed out, the collagen is extracted by raising the temperature. The gelatin solution is now thin and is thickened in a vacuum dryer. After cooling, the gelatin is dried again until the water content is only about 10 to 15 percent, and then ground.

Are there alternatives to gummy bears containing gelatin?

There are now vegan, vegetarian, and halal alternatives available, so you can buy gummy bears without pork gelatin. Some manufacturers even avoid animal additives altogether. Agar-agar is a popular alternative for giving bears, other figures, and fruits the desired jelly-like consistency.

At the turn of the millennium, Haribo also made several attempts to offer its popular Goldbears without gelatin. The gelatin was to be replaced by "a gelling agent produced during the breakdown of glucose syrup," as Haribo spokesperson Franz-Josef Weihrauch explained to the newspaper Welt in 2000.

It is unclear what has become of the kosher gummy bears without gelatin. They were never intended for the German and Central European markets. However, the company does not completely ignore the Muslim and Jewish communities. In Spain, the gold bears are made with gelatin from fish, and in Turkey with gelatin from cattle.

7. Can you make gummy bears yourself? 

If you don't want to buy gummy bears or other fruit gummies, you can also make them yourself. There are many instructions for this on the Internet, some of which are more or less complicated and difficult. The recipes range from simple fruit juices thickened with gelatin or agar-agar to more complicated instructions that describe the process for making gummy bears almost as it is done in the food industry. We would like to conclude by presenting a simple method here.

Make your own gummy bears Make your own from fruit juice

The easiest way to make gummy bears is from fruit juice and gelatin or gelatin substitute. For about 50 pieces, you will need:

• 400 milliliters of fruit juice
• 8 tablespoons agar-agar or gelatin
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice
• some agave syrup or sugar
• gummy bear mold

Preparation:

1. Place the fruit juice, lemon juice, and gelatin or agar-agar in a saucepan.
2. Boil for about two minutes.
3. Add a little agave syrup or sugar to sweeten to taste.
4. Pour the liquid into a mold (e.g., silicone mold for gummy bears or chocolates).
5. Leave to set in the refrigerator for at least one hour, preferably two.

The type of fruit juice you use depends on your personal taste. Pureed fruit or vegetables mixed with water are also ideal.

Sources: 

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelatine

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gummib%C3%A4r

https://www.welt.de/print-welt/article536711/Gummibaerchen-werden-koscher.html

https://www.focus.de/gesundheit/praxistipps/juedisches-leben-sind-gummibaerchen-koscher_id_7468701.html

https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/172315/umfrage/haeufigkeit-konsum-von-fruchtgummi-und-weingummi/

http://das-atelier-cordes.de/gummibaeren-kunst.html

Beth Kimmerle: Candy: The Sweet History, 2003