Optimizing Ingredients

How to Prevent Candy from “Sweating”

For years, a global confection customer was dealing with severe and pronounced moisture pick up in their sanded candy. Their candy was “sweating” profusely in the package—picking up moisture in the bag and creating an unsightly candy product that was being rejected by customers and costing the manufacturer an arm and a leg in product returns and lost sales.

The manufacturer had been using a competitor’s encapsulated acidulant, and had repeatedly reached out to them for a solution to the moisture problem, but with no success. Finally, they contacted Maxx. Our project developers approached the situation by first gathering an exhaustive amount of information, which no doubt frustrated the manufacturer; however, over years we have learned that taking a Socratic approach to projects up front yields better results in the final analysis.

As it turns out, two ingredients were contributing to the problem. At first we decided to microencapsulate one ingredient in an attempt to gather information. That first prototype showed some promise but the results were unremarkable. On the second attempt, we coated both ingredients separately and achieved considerable success. Said the delighted customer, “I’m amazed to see the product still dry after 12 weeks in accelerated shelf-life testing; you have solved the moisture pickup issue!”

sweating-candy-tartaric-acid

The takeaway for customers? Maxx’s Socratic approach to solutions development can pay big dividends, no matter how exhaustive the process may be. And, if you put your trust in a provider whose core capabilities match up with what you’ re looking for, the results most certainly will be sweet.

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