The Complete Guide to Gummy Manufacturing

A gummy machine is used to create gummy products, ranging from the classic bear candies to various vitamins and supplements. They typically include a cooking unit, depositor, molds, and a cooling component that allows the finished product to set prior to packaging. 

Commercial gummy making machines are found most often in mass-production facilities. Manufacturers that produce packaged products at scale to meet market demands rely on this equipment as a cornerstone element of their business operations. 

What Are Gummies Made Of?

Gummy products, like the famous gummy bear, consist of water, glucose syrup (from starch to dextrose), sugar, a gelling agent (pectin or gelatin), dyes, flavorings, and citric acid. However, there are many other alternate recipes that can meet various dietary restrictions as well. 

Gummy Machine Uses 

Gummy machines can be used to make a variety of confectionary products, including: 

• Gummy Bears: Probably the most popular variety on the market today. These usually come in a variety of assorted flavors in a single package. 
• Other Gummy Shapes: Other popular shapes often include gummy worms, cola bottles, rings, and more. 
• Gummy-based Medical Products: Many vitamins, supplements, and other nutritional aids are produced in gummy form. These products are infused with a medical ingredient designed to provide a supplemental benefit to your diet, lifestyle, or other care prescription. These can also aid people who have difficulty swallowing pills or do not like the taste. 
• Fruit Snacks: These gummies are typically flavored with fruit juice and often shaped like the fruits they are designed to mimic the taste of. 
• Diet-Restricted Gummies: Some individuals, for cultural, health, lifestyle, or religious reasons, do not consume certain ingredients in their diet. These gummies have recipes tailored to these demands to serve that customer base. These could include vegan, kosher, halal, USDA Organic, or other types of specialty gummy products. 

How Machines Mass-Produce Gummies

Gummies are mass-produced in a factory and packaged accordingly for each product company. The gummy machines make large-quantity batches, one at a time. Batches are mixed, deposited, and dried as one. Batch sizes can range from 20,000 to hundreds of thousands.

This process shares similarities with softgel production. With softgels, there are three main phases: melting, encapsulation, and drying. Allocating space for drying is critical to both gummy and softgel manufacturing, but is often overlooked when building a production layout. 

Because a single batch may produce tens of thousands of individual products, it can take around 2-3 workers to handle the complete production cycle. This process does not involve the packaging, however. That portion of the production cycle is completed by packaging machines. 

Gummy manufacturing uses a starch or starchless molding process; both using specific machinery. After depositing the product mixture, the molds and gummies are cooled quickly in a chilling tunnel. CapPlus specializes in providing equipment for starchless production. 

Once the gummies are expelled from the molds, they are dried on trays for a period of 24-48 hours until their water activity level has dropped to an approved level for packaging. 

Phase 1: Cooking

The gummy manufacturing process starts with the cooking phase. Ingredients are cooked in a preheated kettle until reaching a desired temperature, which has a direct impact on the final product’s properties. 

This initial mixture is called a slurry. After the slurry reaches the desired temperature, it is removed from the kettle and placed in a storage mixing tank to cease the cooking process. Here, the final ingredients are added, which can include color, flavor, actives, and citric acid. 

It’s important to note that citric acid will adjust the pH of the slurry, which will cause it to “gel.” While in the storage tank, the slurry is kept warm and mixed constantly to maintain its liquid state until depositing. This phase will generally take 1-2 hours. 

Phase 2: Depositing and Cooling

Once the cooking phase has finished, the slurry will be transferred from the storage tank through heated pipes to a hopper on the depositor. Here, a precise amount of the product will be deposited into molds. 

Prior to depositing, the molds are chilled and sprayed with oil. This, along with the Teflon coating, allows the gummies to cool and release from the molds. 

After depositing, the molds will be sent through a chilling tunnel. This rapidly cools the slurry and causes it to set. From there, the gummies are released from the molds and conveyed to trays for drying. 

Phase 3: Coating and Quality Control 

The final phase is split into two parts: coating and quality control. These measures ensure that gummies are ready for packaging. 

Coating gummies is a common step in the gummy manufacturing process. Coatings can change flavor profile, enhance appearance, improve workability for packaging, and can prevent gummies from sticking together. 

Quality control encompasses any of the processes a manufacturing facility can use to validate the quality of the final product. These measures can also be factored into other phases as well. They can include verifying ingredients meet correct standards, confirming bottle counts are correct, and more. 

Between depositing and packaging, for example, the most important quality control process is measuring water activity levels in the gummies. Reaching the correct level is important to prevent microbial growth and reach optimal shelf life. This is measured using a water activity meter. 

Every manufacturer has its own set of quality control processes to satisfy compliance to rules and regulations within their industries. Local, federal, and state laws may also affect these policies as well. 

Because countless gummy products are developed for many brands worldwide, it is vital that every production facility have sound manufacturing and quality control measures in place. Meeting market demand and matching quality standards are essential. 

Ready to Add a Gummy Machine to Your Operations? Let Us Help

Maximizing your return on investment means selecting the right machine that will match your facility’s size, scope of work, and projected growth. You do not want a unit too large or too small for current and future operations. In most cases, it is always better to purchase one with the potential to scale your production to meet all levels of customer demand. 

To aid manufacturers in providing the highest product quality possible, CapPlus offers a wide variety of equipment options to suit your facility’s needs and your company’s operations. If you want to add gummy production to your offerings, replace your existing equipment, or want to discuss anything else related to gummy machines, contact us anytime.