Gummies in the spotlight: Supplement launches and format innovations feature at ISM Cologne 2023

28 Apr 2023 --- According to Innova Market Insights, gummy supplement launches from October 2017 to September 2022 grew by 54%. This trend was a key feature at ISM this year, revealing that, as one of the fastest-growing nutraceutical segments, traditional confectionery companies are entering the functional gummies market.

NutritionInsight speaks with Gelita, VS Food and Supplements4You about the latest innovations in gummy offerings at the world’s largest trade fair for sweets and snacks.

Beauty-from-within gummies 
Innova Market Insights reveals that supplements with skin health claims have had an annual global growth of 31% CAGR over the last five years (2018 to 2022).

Additionally, gummy format launches in the segment experienced an annual global growth of 64% in the same time frame, with biotin being the top ingredient for beauty-from-within supplements launches (35%). Collagen is also been experiencing a rise in demand as its benefits for skin and joint health appeal to the beauty and health aging segments.

Gummy format launches in the skincare space grew 64% from 2018 to 2022, according to Innova Market Insights.Gelita further notes a growing market demand for “better-for-you” beauty-from-within products with good taste and texture. The company showcased its newest solutions for gelatin gummy production. 

Its latest launch, Confixx, is a gelatin for starch-less gummy production that sets in under one hour, explains Natalie Leuwer, category management Food Specialties at Gelita. 

The company’s Verisol HST ingredient stimulates “the cell production of the skin,” explains Leuwer. “Wrinkles and cellulite are reduced and hair and nails grow better.” 

“With the ingredient, manufacturers can produce gummies with 33% Verisol collagen, a composition of bioactive collagen peptides optimized for supporting skin metabolism in beauty-from-within products. Consumers can cover their daily collagen dosage with three gummies.”

Leuwer adds that Gelita produced a “chewing gummy that we can enrich with Verisol” without compromising the gummy’s taste and soft texture, which is typical for products with a high collagen concentration.

Mixing botanicals with vitamins
VS Food, the Dutch company behind chocolate brand Johnny Doodle, introduced a new vegan vitamin gummy brand at the fair, Uptimism, which will be launched next month.

“With Uptimism, we wanted to bring vegan vitamin gummies to the Netherlands,” explains Moshe Vrijmoet, VS Food’s brand manager. The company built a factory to allow for local production. 

The company researched available and used vegan gummies on the market to create six varieties for its product range, including multivitamins, sleep, focus, immunity, energy and beauty, which is “designed to give more strength to hair, nails and skin.” The new Dutch brand Uptimism will combine vitamins and botanicals in a line of vegan vitamin gummies.

After researching botanicals, the company was able to offer a “combination of vitamins and botanicals in almost every gummy,” adds Vrijmoet. 

For its energy gummies, the company replaced caffeine with guarana. It includes valerian extract in its sleep gummies and acerola in its multivitamins. 

Fruit gums with added nutrients 
Supplements4You, is a private-label company for fruit gums with added vitamins and minerals and a subsidiary of the German confectionery company, Johannes Lühders KG. Michael Benn, Supplements4You’s head of sales, explains that the company was set up in recent years to tap into the growing supplement market. 

The company produces a wide range of supplements for fruit gums focusing on hair, nails and sleep. Benn predicts that demand for beauty-from-within products will continue to grow in the coming years. 

Moreover, Benn explains that formulations need to ensure gummies are “tasty and stable and deliver specific health benefits.” He concludes that most of the products on the market, and all of Supplements4You’s gummies, are vegan, which ensures their appeal and ability to be sold worldwide.

By Jolanda van Hal