Economics and management in the sphere of ict department: management and marketing

Confectionery and Sugar-Based Foods

B. Wolf, in Reference Module in Food Science, 2016

Sugar Confectionery

Sugar confectionery, as the name suggests, is rich in sugar; any sugar or type of sugar. There are two types of sugar confections: boiled sweets and fondant (Figure 1). Boiled sweets are “Sugar and water boiled at such a high temperature (150–166 °C) that practically no water remains and a vitreous mass is formed on cooling” whereas fondant has been defined as “Minute sugar crystals in a saturated sugar syrup; used as the creamy filling in chocolates and biscuits and for decorating cakes. This is prepared by boiling sugar solution with the addition of glucose syrup or an inverting agent and cooling rapidly while stirring” (Bender, 2009).

Figure 1. Hard-boiled sweets (left) and fondant (right).
Images labeled for reuse from Google images (accessed 11.12.15.).
Boiled sweets are often referred to as hard-boiled since they are characterized by the sugar being in the glassy state. Products include fruit drops, acid drops, barley sugars, hard gums, toffee, butterscotch, and caramel. The presence of crystalline product is seen as a defect and is referred to as graining. In fondants, the sugar is in its crystalline state. Product examples include chocolate centers, fudge, marzipan, coconut paste, and chews. Presence of glassy material is seen as a defect causing hardness. Ripening is occasionally required.
The principal ingredients of sugar confectionery comprise sucrose, invert sugars, and glucose syrups. Invert sugar is “The mixture of glucose and fructose produced by hydrolysis of sucrose, 1.3 times as sweet as sucrose. So called because the, optical activity is reversed in the process. It is important in the manufacture of sugar confectionery, and especially boiled sweets, since the presence of 10–15% invert sugar prevents the crystallization of sucrose” (Bender, 2009). Glucose syrup, also known as confectioners' glucose, is the purified, concentrated, aqueous solutions of nutritive saccharides from starch. It usually contains 70% w/w total solids such as glucose, maltose and oligomer of glucose of three, four, or more units (Bender, 2009).
A typical boiled sweets formulation will contain 48% w/w sucrose, 32% w/w glucose syrup, and 20% w/w water. Three methods are used to melt the sugar which is followed by molding or forming and rapid quiescent cooling: (1) boiling to ≈150 °C in an open pan bearing the risk of discoloration due to the long process; (2) boiling under vacuum; (3) extrusion. A typical fondant formulation contains more sucrose, for example, 62% w/w sucrose, 16% w/w glucose syrup, and 22% w/w water. The mixture is boiled to 88% w/w solids at 117 °C and then cooled to 37 °C. Beating will induce crystallization of small sucrose crystals (≈10–15 μm). Flavors, colors, and ‘Syrup Bob’ to lower the viscosity to pour are added after reheating to 60 °C. ‘Syrup Bob’ is of similar composition to the original formulation. On cooling, crystal size should be smaller than 20–30 μm to avoid gritty or grainy mouthfeel.
What is big in sugar confectionery? Certainly, this includes products without artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives; and there are many commercial products that are able to make these claims. Sugar reduction in sugar confections may be a bit more controversial. After all, sugar defines the product and an all-round healthy lifestyle may well forgive the odd sweet.