The private label producer has developed Brain Boost Gummies fortified with magnesium as well as collagen peptide-containing Beauty Collagen Gummies. The firm told this site it had a strong response from mass-market confectioners when exhibiting the products at the International Sweets & Biscuits Fair (ISM) in Cologne earlier this year.
Energy claim with magnesium
Hunziker has leveraged European Union approved health claims for its Brain Boost Gummies.
"We just added magnesium - that's the active ingredient of the product - then we can claim on the packaging that it reduces fatigue and that it gives energy,” Manuela Stutz, key account & product manager at the firm told ConfectioneryNews.
What’s the global functional confectionery market worth?
Sugar confectionery is the largest functional confectionery category ahead of gum and chocolate. According to Euromonitor International, the global market for functional sugar confectionery was worth $5.7bn in 2014 and is forecast to record a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.3% by 2019. Hunziker’s Stutz said: "It is one of the few markets that will really grow. Normal confectionery is a declining market, but the functional side is growing more and more."
Hunziker’s private label customers are permitted to use Brain Boost Gummies as a product name or can produce brain-shaped versions, but are not able to make intelligence claims on-pack.
Mass-market appeal
Stutz claimed the product held consumer appeal beyond the pharmacy channel. "It could be in the mass-market because vitamin gummies are already well-known in Europe and the USA. It could be placed right near the vitamin gummies because it's a similar concept.
She said the product could appeal to students sitting exams and athletes, adding that they’d need to eat two gummies a day to obtain the benefit. "Then you have covered the recommended daily allowance of magneisum, which helps you to stay with energy."
Taste implications
According to Stutz, the fortification had little impact on taste. "You just feel the product is a little bit sandy when you eat it because of the magnesium powder, but it's not that much worse."
Hunziker uses berry flavors as they are best options to mask flavors from functional ingredients.
The product uses natural colors &andflavors and is sweetened with sugar but could also be sweetened with a polyol like xylitol.
Beauty Collagen Gummies
The company also launched Beauty Collagen Gummies at ISM earlier this year.
"We were working with our supplier and they had done a clinical study on a collagen peptide and then we tried to develop a formulation for a gummie that contains that collagen because if you have a clinical study then you can do a beauty claim and that's very strong in foods,” said Stutz.
"You can claim that it improves the appearance of wrinkles and that's a very strong claim, even in cosmetics products you hardly read that,” she continued.
She said that there were many beauty gummies on the market fortified with vitamins and minerals but there were no products backed by a clinical study.
Dark appearance
Stutz claimed consumers would need to eat 2.5 g of collagen per day to have an effect, which is the equivalent of two gummies.
"Collagen peptide tastes a little bit like gelatin, so you have to add enough flavor to cover it,” she said. “Also you have an issue with the color because collagen peptide is very dark so the gummie in the end results very dark, that's the only disadvantage."