Gummy candy is made from a short list of ingredients: sugar, glucose syrup, gelatin, food acids, flavorings, colors, and a thin wax coating. The core of every gummy is gelatin dissolved in a hot sugar syrup, which sets into that signature chewy, elastic texture as it cools and dries. Each ingredient plays a specific role, and the balance between them determines whether you get a soft, pillowy gummy or a firm, snappy one.
Sugar and Glucose Syrup
The sweet base of gummy candy comes from two sources working together: regular table sugar (sucrose) and glucose syrup, which is typically made from corn starch. Most gummy formulations use more glucose syrup than sucrose, often at a ratio of about 1.1 to 1.5 parts glucose syrup for every part of sugar. This isn’t just about sweetness. When sucrose is dissolved and then cooled, it wants to crystallize back into grainy crystals. Glucose syrup interferes with that process, keeping the candy smooth, glossy, and pliable instead of gritty.
Some gummies also contain sorbitol, a sugar alcohol that’s about 60% as sweet as regular sugar and carries roughly half the calories. Sorbitol helps gummies stay moist over time, which is why it shows up on ingredient labels even in full-sugar versions. In sugar-free gummies, sorbitol and similar sugar alcohols like mannitol take over the sweetening role entirely.
Gelatin: The Key to the Chew
Gelatin is the ingredient that makes a gummy a gummy. It’s a protein extracted from animal collagen, primarily from pig skin or cattle bones and hides. During processing, the tightly wound triple-helix structure of collagen is broken down into smaller protein fragments through heating and acid or alkaline treatment. Those fragments dissolve in warm water and, as they cool, form a flexible, elastic gel.
In gummy candy, gelatin concentrations typically range from about 3% to 6% of the total formula. At the lower end, you get softer, more jiggly gummies. At the higher end, you get firmer, snappier ones. Gelatin is responsible for the candy’s structure, its elasticity, and that characteristic bounce-back when you bite into it. It also contributes a small amount of protein: about 5.4 grams per 100 grams of gummy bears.
A typical 25-gram serving of gummy bears (roughly a small handful) runs about 82 calories, with around 1.5 grams of protein from the gelatin. The rest is almost entirely sugar.
Food Acids for Tartness
Without acids, gummies would taste flat and one-dimensionally sweet. The tangy bite comes from organic acids, most commonly citric acid (derived from citrus fruits) and malic acid (found naturally in apples). Citric acid is the stronger of the two, with a pH around 2.2, delivering a sharp, immediate sourness. Malic acid is milder at about pH 3.4 and produces a smoother, longer-lasting tartness.
These acids do more than add flavor. They help activate the gelling process and contribute to the candy’s firmness and elasticity. They also function as preservatives, maintaining a low pH that inhibits microbial growth. Some gummy formulations also include tartaric acid (from grapes) or ascorbic acid (vitamin C), depending on the flavor profile the manufacturer is after. Sour gummy varieties get their puckering intensity from an extra coating of citric acid crystals on the outside.
Colors and Flavors
The vivid reds, yellows, greens, and oranges in most commercial gummy bears come from synthetic dyes approved under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The most common are Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, and Blue 1, which can be combined to create nearly any color. These synthetic dyes are inexpensive, consistent from batch to batch, and highly stable during the heating process.
Some brands have shifted toward natural colorants like beet juice, beta-carotene (which gives carrots their orange color), spirulina (a blue-green algae extract), and paprika. These plant-based pigments cost two to five times more than synthetic dyes and vary slightly depending on harvest conditions, which is why most large-scale manufacturers still rely on artificial colors. Flavoring is added as concentrated natural or artificial flavor extracts, matched to whatever fruit the color suggests.
The Wax Coating
If you’ve ever noticed that gummy bears have a subtle shine and don’t stick together in the bag, that’s from a thin coating of wax applied after the candy is formed. Carnauba wax (a plant-based wax from Brazilian palm leaves) and beeswax are the most common choices. The gummies are tumbled in a rotating drum while a small amount of wax, sometimes dissolved in a light vegetable oil like coconut oil, is applied. This creates a sealed barrier that prevents the gummies from losing moisture, drying out, or clumping together during storage.
How Gummies Are Shaped
Most commercial gummy candy is made using a process called starch molding. Flat trays are filled with a bed of corn starch, then leveled to a precise depth, typically 2 to 6 millimeters below the tray’s rim. A stamping board presses bear-shaped (or worm-shaped, or ring-shaped) cavities into the starch. Hot, liquefied gummy mixture is then pumped into each cavity.
The trays go into a curing room where the gummies slowly dry and set, sometimes over 24 to 48 hours depending on the formula. Once firm, the gummies are dumped out and separated from the starch, which gets recycled for the next batch. The finished gummies are then tumbled with their wax coating, packaged, and shipped. The starch never becomes part of the candy itself; it simply acts as a flexible, reusable mold.
Plant-Based Gummy Alternatives
Since traditional gelatin comes from animal sources, it doesn’t work for vegans, vegetarians, or people who follow halal or kosher dietary guidelines (porcine gelatin is especially common). Plant-based gelling agents include pectin (extracted from fruit peels, especially citrus and apples), agar (from seaweed), carrageenan (also from seaweed), and alginate (from brown algae). Each of these can form a gel, but none of them perfectly replicate gelatin’s unique chewiness.
Pectin-based gummies tend to be softer and less elastic, with more of a fruit-snack texture than a classic gummy bear bounce. Agar produces a firmer, more brittle gel that snaps rather than stretches. Achieving that resilient, springy structure without gelatin remains a genuine challenge for candy makers. Some manufacturers add plant proteins like soy protein isolate, which has structure-forming properties that increase firmness and bring the texture closer to what gelatin provides. If you pick up a bag labeled “vegan gummies,” expect a slightly different mouthfeel, though the gap has narrowed considerably in recent years.
A Century-Old Invention
The gummy bear was invented in 1922 by Hans Riegel Sr., a German confectioner who had founded his company Haribo two years earlier in Bonn, Germany. (The name Haribo is simply a mashup of Hans Riegel Bonn.) Riegel called his creation the Tanzbären, or “Dancing Bear.” Gelatin-based confections already existed before Riegel, with roots tracing back to fruit preserves made with pectin and starches, but he was the first to shape them into the small bear form that became iconic. Over the next century, gummy candy expanded into hundreds of shapes and flavors, but the basic formula of sugar, gelatin, and acid has remained remarkably unchanged.