Candy Manufacturing Technology and Candy Manufacturing Techniques

Candy is a delicate and delicious, treat that we all love. It comes in many wonderful flavors including milk chocolate, caramel, peppermint, dark chocolate, butter scotch and various other fruit and mint flavors. It also comes in many consistencies such as chewing gum, hard, soft and all sorts of great delicious configurations and shapes. So while so many of us love these treats we rarely think how it is made, why each bar tastes the same, how it is kept at a reasonable cost, and how such tremendous amounts can be manufactured with such repeatability. The processes used in manufacturing are truly wonderful and extremely interesting.

Candy manufacturing is not just something the large manufacturers like M&M Mars and Hershey have to think about but also the specialty gourmet manufactures and smaller private label gourmet companies. There are many fascinating technologies involved in the production process as well as very many types of processing equipment. There are machines made for each specific process as well as complete integrated manufacturing processing lines. Some examples, in the order of typical production are:

• Vats used in the initial mixing and cooking of raw ingredients
• Aerating the mixture
• Molding to shape
• Stamping to shape
• Drawing to diameter
• Cooling to proper temperature
• Coating with color or flavor
• Automatic decorators
• Wrapping and packaging the final product
• Integrated Manufacturing Solutions are also available
• Quality Control Equipment to assure a good safe product

All processing equipment should be FDA approved and authorized. The technology found in many modern manufacturing machines is very sophisticated. The machines are frequently highly automated; controlled by computers and have touch screen interfaces that are user friendly. The current state of the art equipment is integrated with sophisticated electronics, sensors and programmable controllers.

A Good Manufacturing Example:

A good example demonstrating the use of equipment used to manufacture candies is in the manufacturer of hard candies. Hard candy manufacturing involves many of the machines above including vats, ovens, mixers, rollers and twisters. Further demonstrating this is the manufacturer of butterscotch.

A batch of butterscotch mix is prepared in a large cooking vat which is called a vacuum cooker. The butterscotch starts from raw materials such as sugar, and flavorings. These raw materials are mixed in the vacuum cooker until a pliable mass of butterscotch is available for further processing. The following step in the manufacturing process is to put the mass of butterscotch through a series of water cooled plows and formers, in a kneading machine. The butterscotch is twisted and pulled as it is passed down a long trough. The plows and formers move the mixture along elongating it forming a huge giant continuous string.

The mixture is still very large in diameter and blobby at this time. In order to get it to the desired diameter and consistency for consumption further processing is required. Using a long series of rollers and dies the mixture is next extruded and elongated further to size. This is the forming process brings the mixture closer to the final configuration for the end consumer. After this extruding the long rope shaped candy is cut into individual butterscotch buttons and transported on a conveyor belt through a sorter and eventually a wrapping machine. The buttons are then packaged to appropriate containers and ready to ship to the customer as butterscotch candy.

Joel Bernstein
BS Management Science Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)
MBA Rutgers University.
Joel Bernstein writes about Chocolate Candy and confectionery products. Candy is great to write about because it is a happy topic that people enjoy. Enjoy this article about candy manufacturing. Candy manufacturers, end consumers and Wholesale Candy store owners should find it interesting.