Fizzy worms

Fizzy worms are gummy worms coated in sugar sharpened with acid. The first gummy worms were made by the German sweet maker Trolli in 1981: see how are gummy worms made?

Two recipes from one shop

The UK retailer Sweets and Candy lists two kinds of sugar coated worms, and their ingredients show how much recipes can differ.

Halal Fizzy Worms. Glucose syrup, sugar, corn starch, beef gelatine, apple juice concentrate, citric acid, tartaric and malic acids, the colours titanium dioxide, allura red, tartrazine, brilliant blue and sunset yellow, and flavourings. The retailer describes them as sugar coated fruit flavour jelly worms in bright neon colours, made with certified halal gelatine.

Sour Worms. Glucose syrup, sugar, corn starch, gelatine, glycerol, citric and malic acids, pectins, concentrates of safflower, spirulina, carrot, blackcurrant and lemon, flavourings, and the colour E160c.

Where the fizz comes from

Real fizz, as in sherbet, comes from an acid reacting with bicarbonate of soda to make carbon dioxide: see why do fizzy sweets fizz on your tongue?

Neither recipe here lists bicarbonate. The sharpness comes from the acids instead: citric acid, malic acid, and in the halal worms tartaric acid, which occurs naturally in grapes. See how are sour sweets made? and what is malic acid in sweets?

The colours

• Halal Fizzy Worms use synthetic colours. Tartrazine (E102), sunset yellow (E110) and allura red (E129) are three of the six colours that must carry the warning may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children, and the listing shows that warning: see the Southampton six colours
• They also contain titanium dioxide (E171), a white colour the EU banned as a food additive in 2022. The Food Standards Agency did not follow the ban, so it is still permitted in Great Britain: see what are E numbers in sweets?
• Sour Worms take their colours from safflower, spirulina, carrot, blackcurrant and lemon concentrates, and from E160c, a colour extracted from paprika: see natural colours in sweets

Diet and allergy points

• Gelatine. Both recipes contain gelatine, so neither is suitable for vegetarians or vegans: see gelatine in sweets explained
• Halal. Only the first recipe says its gelatine is certified halal. The second does not say where its gelatine comes from: see a guide to halal sweets
• Gluten and other allergens. Neither recipe lists wheat, but the retailer says its sweets are packed where wheat, gluten, soya, milk, peanuts and nuts are handled, and it marks the halal worms as may contain gluten: see pick and mix and allergies

In our pick and mix

We sell Fizzy Worms by the 100 g. Recipes differ between makers, so the card opens up to show the full ingredients and allergens for the fizzy worms we actually stock.

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