2. Good thermal stability and acid stability
3. It is difficult to be decomposed by human digestive enzymes.
4, low sweetness, low calorie
On September 29th, 2005, Yucheng was awarded the title of "China Functional Sugar City" by China National Light Industry Federation, becoming the only "Functional Sugar City" in China. With the expansion of the consumption field, China's functional sugar industry has made remarkable progress, developing towards multi-variety, personalization, specialization, functionalization and scale, with a substantial increase in output and an increasingly perfect variety structure. Mankind will usher in a new era of functional sugar.
Functional candy is a new category developed on the basis of traditional candy. In the reporter's interview, people in the industry also gave some different answers to the definition of functional candy. For example, Chen Weihui, a marketing expert of Xiamen Falcons, believes that functional candy should be "candy with external additional characteristics greater than the characteristics of candy itself". In other words, the focus of candy appeal is not on itself, but on the characteristics other than sugar. JamesDedman, the world's leading food ingredient manufacturer, said in an interview with this reporter that the international definition of functional candy is: "In addition to meeting people's most basic calorie needs, it also brings candy with additional functions such as moistening throat and supplementing vitamins. Low-sugar or sugar-free healthy candy is also a functional candy. " This definition makes the scope of functional candy wider.
But in any case, functional candy can be regarded as a sudden emergence of the domestic candy industry in recent years, which quickly opened the market door. According to the analysis of the National Bureau of Statistics in 2004, the market share of functional candy will exceed that of traditional candy in five years.
Vitamins and xylitol stimulate the functional candy market.
When it comes to the rise of functional candy in China, we can't help but say Yake V9. In 2003, after people just experienced a panic of SARS, the concept of vitamin supplementation was deeply rooted in people's hearts. At that time, the little-known Yake launched V9, which quickly won the favor of consumers with the appeal of "two tablets of V9 to supplement daily vitamins". From the popularity of investment promotion to the growth rate of early sales, it created a miracle in the candy industry, with sales exceeding 200 million that year. Until Yake's success attracted many candy companies to follow suit, even Unakang, one of the production bases of antibiotics and vitamins, launched a vitamin C health food-Guo Weikang in 2005.
Indeed, in just four years, vitamin candy has developed into the fifth largest category of candy industry in China.
In addition to vitamins, xylitol is also an indispensable keyword for functional candy. With the strengthening of people's health awareness, urban residents began to consciously control their sugar intake and maintain a healthy body. In particular, women regard sugar as a scourge to maintain their bodies, and these consumers are the target groups in the candy market, so xylitol products came into being. This trend began with gum sugar, and began with internationally renowned enterprises such as Lotte, Haoliyou and Wrigley, which quickly swept the whole industry. Domestic brands such as Yake Didadi also locked their functions in "sugar-free" and "dental caries prevention". At one time, the whole gum sugar industry had a thorough "xylitol revolution", and the sales volume increased very strongly, accounting for only 5% of 200 1 year.
The concept of sugar-free has spread to the whole candy industry. In addition to chewing gum candy, hard candy, soft candy and even chocolate have also begun to cater to this "sugar-free" trend.
The gradual rise of functional candy has brought a certain impact to the traditional candy industry. In 1990s, the sales volume of cylindrical toffee in monopoly market has been shrinking year by year, and the hard toffee market has also stagnated, and the sales volume largely depends on the wedding and festival markets.
In addition to vitamins and xylitol, more functional candies are constantly being created, such as candy for clearing and moistening throat, candy with tea polyphenols, and even "Rhodiola candy" which can cope with altitude sickness. Wu Weidong, general manager of Fujian Everest Food Company, told the reporter that they have jointly developed candy containing rhodiola extract with the Institute of Tibetan Medicine, which is mainly sold to travelers on the plateau, and they also found many beneficial ingredients in Tibetan medicine that can be added to candy. Who can predict that the next V9 will not appear in these new products?