{
    "id": 1071071,
    "title": "Candy corn",
    "slug": "candy-corn",
    "type": "page",
    "url": "https://sweeties.net/wiki/candy-corn/",
    "modified": "2026-09-26T08:05:25+01:00",
    "excerpt": "Candy corn is America's Halloween sweet, first made in the 1880s as Chicken Feed. What Brach's contains, from Red 3 to shellac, and why it divides opinion.",
    "content_text": "Candy corn is a small, waxy sweet in bands of yellow, orange and white, shaped like a kernel of corn. It is a staple of autumn and Halloween in North America, and its flavour is based on honey, sugar and vanilla.\nChicken Feed\nCandy corn was invented in the 1880s by George Renninger, who worked for the Wunderle Candy Company, and it was first sold as Chicken Feed. The Goelitz Confectionery Company, now called Jelly Belly, began making it in 1898: see jelly beans\nIt became a Halloween staple around the 1950s, when people began handing out individually wrapped sweets to trick or treaters. The National Confectioners Association has named 30 October, the day before Halloween, National Candy Corn Day. In 2016 the United States made 35 million pounds of it, almost 9 billion pieces, and Brach's, the biggest maker, holds about 85 per cent of the Halloween market.\nLove it or hate it\nCandy corn has a reputation for splitting opinion, and articles have called it Halloween's most contentious sweet, the kind people either love or hate.\nWhat is in it\nBrach's Candy Corn, as recorded by Open Food Facts in February 2025. Sugar, corn syrup, confectioner's glaze (shellac), salt, natural and artificial flavours, dextrose, gelatine, honey, titanium dioxide, sesame oil, and the colours Yellow 6, Red 3, Yellow 5 and Blue 1.\nThe Red 3 question\nRed 3 is erythrosine, E127. On 15 January 2025 the US Food and Drug Administration revoked its authorisation in food, giving makers until 15 January 2027 to change their recipes. In the European Union it is allowed in only a few products: see sweets that were banned\nThe same recipe also uses titanium dioxide, which the EU banned as a food additive in 2022, and Yellow 5 and Yellow 6, known in Europe as tartrazine and sunset yellow, two of the six colours that carry a warning for children when sold here: see the Southampton six colours\nDiet and allergy points\nGelatine and shellac. Brach's contains gelatine and a shellac glaze, so it is not suitable for vegetarians or vegans: see gelatine in sweets explained and what is shellac on sweets?Sesame. The recipe contains sesame oil, and sesame is one of the 14 major allergens: see the 14 allergens explained for sweetsImports. Candy corn is an American sweet, so check any imported pack for an English ingredients list with the allergens emphasised: see how sweets from abroad came to Britain\nIn our pick and mix\nWe do not sell candy corn. Each sweet we do sell has a card that opens up to show its full ingredients and allergens.",
    "contentSignals": "ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes",
    "links": {
        "apiCatalog": "https://sweeties.net/.well-known/api-catalog",
        "llmsTxt": "https://sweeties.net/llms.txt",
        "mcpCard": "https://sweeties.net/.well-known/mcp/server-card.json",
        "primaryAgenticRouteAuthority": "https://sweeties.net/.well-known/sweeties-primary-agentic-route-authority.json"
    }
}