Confectionery: Texture Geekery

What makes chewy candies so appealing? Texture is a huge part of it. That’s why a lot of professional chefs love making candy—manipulating texture is what chefs do. Professional confectioners, too, are masters of texture, and they’re seriously well schooled in the ingredients that go into our favourite confections.

For every piece of chewy candy, there are a few key elements that dictate texture: Soluble solids control the firmness of a certain product. Gums control the “bite” (supple, snappy, or brittle, for example). And fat and air soften the texture in a way that soluble solids alone cannot. Candies like Starburst, for example, seem hard at first but then yield to your bite. It’s the high concentration of soluble solids that makes them hard; incorporating air and fat, meanwhile, makes the texture soft enough to chew.

How Confectionery Industry Leaders use Texture Analysis to get ahead of their competition

• How Wrigleys and Revolymer control chewing gum texture

Wrigley have been using their TA.XTplus for quality control in a range of products for decades now. In addition to new product development and troubleshooting, the effects of formulation changes on chewing gum texture have also be assessed.

Innovative attachments, including forward and back extrusion cells, craft knife blades and tensile grips, are put into action to assess characteristics such as hardness, stickiness and stringiness.
 
Over the past two centuries, gum manufacturers have embraced materials science to produce a product that has a wide variety of benefits, from cavity protection to enhanced mental concentration.

Texture Analysis in Research: Confectionery

Three point bend test 

The food industry is flourishing at a very high rate all across the globe and might serve as a major driver for the confectionery ingredients market. 

Confectionery ingredients provide stability, texture, and various other properties, and therefore, can be used to prepare a variety of food products. 

More than 70% of consumers prefer the use of products that contain natural ingredients and therefore chose the products that claim to have no artificial ingredients. The trend for the use of clean-label products is rising due to the increase in health awareness among the consumers, and therefore, the manufacturers of confectionery products are attempting to make use of ingredients to develop innovative products that have low-fat content, low sugar content, etc. The development of such food products might attract health-conscious consumers, and thus, there might be an increase in the confectionery ingredients market.

Popping Candy for Drug Delivery – Acoustic Measurement on a Texture Analyser

Popping candy, often known by various brand names, uses pressurised carbon dioxide gas trapped in a sugar matrix to cause popping noises and crackling sensations when the gas is released in the moisture and temperature of the mouth. 

Popping candy was invented decades ago to be sold as confectionery. More recently, however, food manufacturers and chefs have been incorporating it into chocolate and other types of food to provide an additional point of interest. It is not only food that has benefited from the invention; the pharmaceutical industry is also becoming wise to this interesting ingredient.

Adding Texture to Tea

The best discoveries are total accidents, and bubble tea is no exception. 

The drink as we know it today found its origins in Taiwan in 1988 when Lin Hsiu Hui, a product developer in a tea house, decided on a whim to pour her tapioca pudding into her iced tea. 

Perhaps excited by the extra level of texture she had incorporated into her drink, she passed it around the meeting room and it was met with acclaim; the product was tweaked and brought onto the market, and its sales rocketed. 

The Battle of the Confectioners in the Development of Chocolate

Chocolate continues to be the world’s favourite confection bringing to mind images of comfort, indulgence and taste. 

With a successful product comes tough competition between the major players in the confectionery world to make new advances in product development. Pushing the development envelope to create new novel versions of such a product requires the tools to assess and compare the effects of new processes and ingredients. This is where texture analysis becomes a manufacturer’s best friend.

Texture Analysis of Novel Confectionery

Pillowy fondants, sticky caramels and gooey chocolate - their texture doesn't need to be a mystery! 

From fairytales and films to cordon bleu gastronomy and industrial food production, confectionery is found at the heart of Western culture.

This love of all things sweet has not been overlooked by the commercial confectionery industry, which manufactures millions of tonnes each year. Meeting market demand, however, isn’t easy. Today’s consumers want it all, demanding products that deliver on taste and texture alike to enhance their eating experience.

New popcorn texture measurement for booming snack sector

Popcorn is literally an exploding sector of the snack food market providing a new more healthy indulgence option that is less of a guilty pleasure. 

In contrast to the well-known sweet toffee version, we are now seeing the introduction of a myriad of flavouring choices which is injecting the element of excitement and fun into the market. 

Consumers’ growing interest in ethnic and exotic flavours has influenced brands to develop new, innovative and interesting flavours such as maple sea salt, green apple caramel, sour cream and onion, fruit chutney, pulled pork. 

The range of flavour offerings changes from country to country according to national preferences and maturity of markets.

Texture Analysis in Action: the Ice Cream Scoop and Ice Cream Cone Support Rig

Two of our test attachments have been designed specifically for use in the development of frozen confectionery.

The ICE CREAM SCOOP (A/ICS) is used to measure the scooping resistance of ice cream, and other similar samples which can be formed into a self-supporting block.

A tilt-table is mounted on to the base of the Texture Analyser and the scoop positioned onto the load cell.

Frozen Confectionery Texture: Sorbets and Ice Lollies

Sorbet originally hails from the Roman Empire – and can be thought of as a low-calorie version of ice cream.
In the absence of non-fat milk solids, it usually consists of a fruit juice, plus carbohydrates stabilised with a hydrocolloid (e.g. alginate) and emulsified with mono- or diglyceride or polysorbate 80. The carbohydrates can be chosen so as to provide a harder or softer texture as in the case of ice cream, and aeration (overrun) can be obtained as with ice cream.

Sorbet is by definition an aerated frozen dessert, typically with a pH of 2.5 to 4.0 based on water, fruit juice or fruit juice concentrate, sugar, glucose syrup or other sugar types and combinations, functional systems blends, citric acid, flavourings and colourings. Sorbet does not contain fat, but may contain emulsifier and milk solids from whey powder if a creamy type of sorbet is to be produced.

Frozen Confectionery Texture: Chocolate Bars

Does your ice cream product have
a signature texture?

With the advent of more complex ice cream products incorporating inclusions of various kinds the migration of moisture from the ice cream to crisp, particularly cereal-based, components becomes more of a problem.

Particular examples of this are products incorporating wafers either within the ice cream or around the ice cream. Without protection against moisture migration the wafer very rapidly loses its crispness and becomes soggy. If a barrier coating is used between the wafer and the ice cream, this migration is retarded and the product retains crispness for a much longer time. 

Other examples of inclusion are meringue pieces, praline, nuts and chocolate coated puffed rice.

The Scoop on Ice Cream Testing

This summer while waiting in line at your local ice cream parlour, you may have a lot to ponder.

Do you want ice cream, gelato, frozen yogurt or sorbet? Will you choose a cone or a bowl? What about sprinkles, nuts or chocolate sauce? 

Back in the lab, ice cream manufacturers also have a lot to ponder when developing, testing, and reformulating their products.

Using a Texture Analyser, it’s possible to measure several textural properties of ice cream as well as the syrups, sauces, and inclusions that are added for enhanced consumer novelty or experience.In terms of volume, ice cream is by far the largest frozen snack food item consumed in the frozen state in the West.

During its market growth, it has been transformed from a very high-class, expensive almost all-dairy product into an adequate, largely non-dairy but much cheaper and still very attractive version.

Confectionery Texture Measurement and Analysis

From fairytales and films to cordon bleu gastronomy and industrial food production, confectionery is found at the heart of Western culture.

This love of all things sweet has not been overlooked by the commercial confectionery industry, which manufactures millions of tonnes each year. Meeting market demand, however, isn’t easy.

Developing stable chocolate products for high temperature environments

Nestlé has followed in the footsteps of Mondelez and developed its own non-melting (or temperature tolerant) chocolate especially suited to emerging markets with hot climates.

Conventionally manufactured chocolate consists of sugars, cocoa solids and protein (usually from milk) homogeneously dispersed in fats and fatty substances originating from cocoa butter. Chocolate analogues contain other vegetable fats in partial/total replacement of the cocoa butter fat. Often the continuous fat phase also contains dairy fat.

Cocoa butter typically starts to soften at about 28°C, with consequent loss of the mechanical strength of the chocolate. This means that at the high ambient temperatures frequently encountered in tropical countries, chocolate becomes sticky or even runny. It tends to stick to the wrapper and fall apart when the wrapper is removed, leaving a semi-liquid mass that can often only be eaten with a spoon if cleanliness is desired.

Materials science to the rescue: easily removable chewing gum

Halina Stanley investigates the history of chewing gum, how the chemistry of the gum affects its properties, and how scientists are using this knowledge to make chewing gum less of a pollutant.

Here's a taster...
"Love it or hate it, chewing gum is a ubiquitous and usually benign activity. Benign, that is, until some idiot decides to put some in your hair. Wouldn’t it be nice if gum didn’t stick to carpets, shoes and the underside of school desks? Terry Cosgrove, professor of chemistry at Bristol University, UK, has decided to take action; his easily removable chewing gum may save millions in cleaning bills.