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Preserving Gummy Bears?
Im making Berry Gummies for my kids and most DIY recipes dont use a preservative. The assumption is they will be eaten within the week so the fridge should be fine. I want to make a larger quantity and possibly ship some. At looking at some basic gummy ingredients it looks like they may just be using Citric Acid? Is this a good enough preservative and at what % or measurement do I use? I saw a site that mentioned .05-.1% to 16oz of water? Does this sound right?
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5 Replies
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The lower pH due to citric acid is just one step of gummy bear preservation
.The second one is very low water activity (glycerol and gelatine). However, this may not apply to certain vegan recipes which require additional strategies. -
@Pharma Its a basic recipe. Berry extract (simmering berries and straining) Honey to sweeten the juice and animal sourced gelatin.
A basic recipe I saw was just using the juice, water with gelatin and mix and set in molds.
do you know how much citric acid I would use? is the above a good ratio? -
Ups, I forgot to mention sugar to reduce water activity!Honey but also fruits are rich in these.Read slide 33 & 34 of THIS presentation for the answer regarding pH or in other words the amount of required citric acid. The lower, the better but sadly, not necessarily the better tasting…
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@Pharma thanks for the link. I’m not going to pretend that I learned anything or even understood what I was reading LOL
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Yep, as stated by others, it is a combination of low water activity and low pH. T
The combination of sugar and glycerol, lowers the water activity.
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