Here's how gummi bears are manufactured:
- Corn starch, corn syrup, sugar, gelatin, colors, and
flavors are weighed, mixed, and forced through a candy cooker.
The candy cooker is a 128-foot (39-meter) coil of stainless steel
pipe. Steam flows around the pipe, heating the ingredients to
245º F (117º C) and cooking the candy. At the end of the
pipe is a vacuum chamber, where excess moisture is removed from the
candy.
- The candy flows through a mix station, where colors, flavors,
acids, and fruit concentrates are added to the candy.
- Now the candy is ready to be molded into shape. The machine that
molds the candy is called a "mogul." The mogul has mold boards
filled with powdered starch. First, an impression of hundreds of
little bears is made in the mold board's powdered starch by a stamping
machine. These impressions in the starch will hold the candy in place
as it cools and dries. The mold board then passes under a hopper
full of the cooked and flavored candy. Dozens of nozzles attached to the hopper
squirt candy into the impressions in the mold board's starch.
- While still in their mold board, the gummi bears are set aside for
twenty-four hours to cool and dry.
- The mold board is put back into the mogul. The mogul dumps the contents of the mold board into a rotating sieve.
The sieve separates the gummi bears from the starch used to shape them.
- From the mogul, the gummi bears move via conveyor belt to a
tumbler, where they are coated to prevent them from sticking to each
other.
- The gummi bears are now ready to be packed, shipped, and eaten.
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