With double-digit annual growth and an expected turnover of 7.15 billion dollars by 2025, this new form of food supplements coming directly from the United States, popularized by influencers and acclaimed by consumers, seems to be promised to a great success.

Gummies: a new generation of food supplements

Gummies are these small gelatinous candies, most often sold as food supplements for everything and everyone. Nevertheless, the market is mainly aimed at women with promises of beauty or well-being: skin care, detox, sleep, stress, immunity, hair and nails; or specifically intended for pregnancy. Men are not completely left out and also have specific products in order to get a thick and shiny beard or hair for example. As for children, this format is intended to be fun to facilitate their consumption when some vitamin and/or mineral supplementation is needed.

 

Regulatory aspects

From a regulatory point of view, there are two possible statuses depending on the formulation : A food supplement status or an enriched food status allowing simplified marketing authorization and rapid launching.

Formulation

Looking at the formulation, both sweet (cane sugar, wheat syrup) or unsweetened options coexist. In the case of sugar-free gummies, polyols are used, and therefore no organic labeling/claim is possible. Concerning enrichments in vitamins and minerals, active ingredients of chemical origin are not authorized except for vitamin C. Finally for texturing, the two main gelling agents used are pectin and agar-agar which make it possible to have this gum texture and which are then coated with carnauba wax or sugar.

Looking like a candy but not being one

It is important to note that this kind of food supplements which are intended to be fun and indulgent are not unanimous in the scientific community and among nutrition/health specialists.

Their candy-like appearance quickly won over consumers but these products are definitely not sweets and consumption beyond the recommendations leads to a significant risk of overdose. That it the reason why, like other food supplements with a more “classic” form, ANSES (National Agency for Food, and health Safety in France) is monitoring cases of adverse effects that are reported by the Nutrivigilance system for instance.

Furthermore, the use of sugars (in various forms) raises interrogations.  Indeed, the amount of sugar provided by one or two gummies consumed per day does not have a huge impact on the daily intake. However, at a time when nutritional recommendations tend to limit simple sugar intake, what is the impact of this additional daily reminder of sweet taste to our brain ? It is a paradox for a nutritional or health product.

Even with these questions, which for the moment have not been answered, the use of gummies is clearly an innovation in the way of delivering bioactive compounds to the consumers as they remain more “fun” than the daily consumption of tablets or capsules.

FOODINNOV can support you

on different aspects:

• Scientific, regulatory and innovation support for the creation of your concepts
• Identification of ingredients according to your specifications
• Regulatory validation of your formulas and claims for the French market, Europe and export overseas
• Regulatory support for the construction of your labels and your promotional communications intended for consumers and health professionals
• Help with marketing authorization of your food supplements to the competent authorities
• Search for subcontractors
• Functional characterization of ingredients