How It’s Made visited a confectionery plant to show the processes and equipment used to produce red licorice and gummies.

John S. Forrester, former Managing Editor

June 22, 2021

Have you ever wondered how gummies are made? Discovery Channel’s How It’s Made show visited a confectionery plant to illustrate the processes and equipment used to produce red licorice and gummy candies.

The first part of the episode shows how wheat, sugar, corn syrup, red food coloring and artificial and natural strawberry flavors are mixed, cooked into a paste, cooled, and then extruded into licorice. Viewers can observe how nozzles on the extruder rotate to give the product its characteristic twisted rope shape. Licorice is then cut and put into a dryer for eight hours before it is weighed and then packaged.

Another segment showcases the equipment used to create gummy bears and worms, including stamping machines used to create cornstarch molds and a depositor that fills the liquid gummy mixture into the molds. The candies solidify in a refrigerated room over a number of hours. Viewers should take note of how the cornstarch mold disintegrates after the gummies are dumped out by a machine. The cornstarch is sifted at the bottom of the equipment, allowing the company to recycle it into new molds.  

The video ends with shots of the plant’s packaging line as gummy worms are being loaded into plastic containers.

Anyone interested in confectionery manufacturing should check out this fascinating episode of How It’s Made.

About the Author(s)

John S. Forrester

former Managing Editor, Powder & Bulk Solids

John S. Forrester is the former managing editor of Powder & Bulk Solids.

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