Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Halloween is candy time and the favoured treats these days seem to be gummies. The inception of these yummies takes us back to Bonn, Germany and a young confectioner, Hans Riegel. Candies had become popular during the Victorian era as sugar prices dropped thanks to sugar plantations that had been established in the Caribbean. Heating sugar in water and then allowing the water to boil off until the sugar crystallizes results in hard candies that enticed Victorian children into “penny candy shops.” In 1920, Riegel had his eyes on something different. By mixing the sugar solution with a resin extruded by acacia trees he managed to create a soft candy with a rubbery, chewy texture. The resin from the acacia tree was known as “gum arabic” hence the name “gummies.” Gum arabic is a polymer of the sugar galactose with some arabinose branching that when heated and cooled traps water molecules and forms a gel.
To differentiate his product from other candies Riegel shaped them into little bears. As the story goes, he was aware of children being amused by dancing bears at festivals and he thought they would find the gummy bears attractive. To further increase the appeal, he came up with attractive gold packaging, and called the novel candy “Haribo Goldbears,” the name Haribo being derived from the first two letters of Hans and Riegel and BO from Bonn, the city where he set up his factory. Today, each gummy contains about a gram of sugar with 17 gummies being judged a serving. That’s a hefty four teaspoons of sugar.
Since gum arabic was expensive, Riegel switched to gelatin produced by heating and cooling the protein collagen derived from animal tissues. Like gum arabic, it forms a gel by trapping water as the long collagen molecules unwind, break down into smaller peptides called gelatin that then trap water as they try to recombine into larger molecules. For anyone with nostalgic feelings towards gum arabica, it still appears in M&M candies.
Gelatin is available commercially as a powder, but it can also be produced at home by boiling bones. “Bone broth” gels upon cooling as heat breaks collagen down into gelatin. An interesting little sidelight to the collagen story takes us to the 2005 movie “King Kong” in which director Peter Jackson wanted authenticity in portraying the giant ape’s poop. On a trip to Wellington Zoo in New Zealand where the movie was filmed, he and his crew examined all sorts of animal feces and based on what they saw, made a synthetic version by mixing cocoa powder, breakfast cereal, mustard and salt bound together with gelatin. You could eat this version of King Kong’s poop!
Haribo Goldbears, and virtually every other candy, contain citric acid that acts both as a preservative and flavouring. It imparts the sour taste consumers enjoy in a candy. Citric acid is not extracted from citrus fruits in which it occurs naturally, but is produced through biotechnology. The black mold aspergillus niger will crank out citric acid when fed nutrients in the form of sugar pulp or rice husks.
These days gummies are not restricted to candies. Probiotic gummies contain bacteria that are supposedly beneficial for the gut. Catering to consumers who desire to avoid animal products, these gummies are formulated with pectin instead of gelatin. Pectin is a polymer of galacturonic acid and can be isolated from citrus peel or the leftover pulp from apple juice production. Like gelatin it is a gelling agent but the gel it produces is less squishy and stretchy. There are also gummies that are infused with tetrahydrocannabinol, the bliss inducing component of cannabis. And for anyone too lazy to prepare a cup of coffee, there is a coffee gummy they can pop into their mouth. It too is made with pectin. But don’t give it to trick or treaters on Halloween.
Halloween is candy time and the favoured treats these days seem to be gummies. The inception of these yummies takes us back to Bonn, Germany and a young confectioner, Hans Riegel. Candies had become popular during the Victorian era as sugar prices dropped thanks to sugar plantations that had been established in the Caribbean. Heating sugar in water and then allowing the water to boil off until the sugar crystallizes results in hard candies that enticed Victorian children into “penny candy shops.” In 1920, Riegel had his eyes on something different. By mixing the sugar solution with a resin extruded by acacia trees he managed to create a soft candy with a rubbery, chewy texture. The resin from the acacia tree was known as “gum arabic” hence the name “gummies.” Gum arabic is a polymer of the sugar galactose with some arabinose branching that when heated and cooled traps water molecules and forms a gel.
To differentiate his product from other candies Riegel shaped them into little bears. As the story goes, he was aware of children being amused by dancing bears at festivals and he thought they would find the gummy bears attractive. To further increase the appeal, he came up with attractive gold packaging, and called the novel candy “Haribo Goldbears,” the name Haribo being derived from the first two letters of Hans and Riegel and BO from Bonn, the city where he set up his factory. Today, each gummy contains about a gram of sugar with 17 gummies being judged a serving. That’s a hefty four teaspoons of sugar.
Since gum arabic was expensive, Riegel switched to gelatin produced by heating and cooling the protein collagen derived from animal tissues. Like gum arabic, it forms a gel by trapping water as the long collagen molecules unwind, break down into smaller peptides called gelatin that then trap water as they try to recombine into larger molecules. For anyone with nostalgic feelings towards gum arabica, it still appears in M&M candies.
Gelatin is available commercially as a powder, but it can also be produced at home by boiling bones. “Bone broth” gels upon cooling as heat breaks collagen down into gelatin. An interesting little sidelight to the collagen story takes us to the 2005 movie “King Kong” in which director Peter Jackson wanted authenticity in portraying the giant ape’s poop. On a trip to Wellington Zoo in New Zealand where the movie was filmed, he and his crew examined all sorts of animal feces and based on what they saw, made a synthetic version by mixing cocoa powder, breakfast cereal, mustard and salt bound together with gelatin. You could eat this version of King Kong’s poop!
Haribo Goldbears, and virtually every other candy, contain citric acid that acts both as a preservative and flavouring. It imparts the sour taste consumers enjoy in a candy. Citric acid is not extracted from citrus fruits in which it occurs naturally, but is produced through biotechnology. The black mold aspergillus niger will crank out citric acid when fed nutrients in the form of sugar pulp or rice husks.
These days gummies are not restricted to candies. Probiotic gummies contain bacteria that are supposedly beneficial for the gut. Catering to consumers who desire to avoid animal products, these gummies are formulated with pectin instead of gelatin. Pectin is a polymer of galacturonic acid and can be isolated from citrus peel or the leftover pulp from apple juice production. Like gelatin it is a gelling agent but the gel it produces is less squishy and stretchy. There are also gummies that are infused with tetrahydrocannabinol, the bliss inducing component of cannabis. And for anyone too lazy to prepare a cup of coffee, there is a coffee gummy they can pop into their mouth. It too is made with pectin. But don’t give it to trick or treaters on Halloween.
