# How are gummy bears made?

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## Summary

Gummy bears are a hot mix of sugar, glucose syrup, starch, gelatine and flavours poured into bear shapes stamped in starch and left overnight to set.

## Description

Gummy bears are made in a surprisingly simple looking way: poured into shapes pressed into trays of powder.
The recipe
The traditional gummy bear is made from sugar, glucose syrup, starch, flavouring, food colouring, citric acid and gelatine. Higher quality gummies have gelatine as the lead ingredient. Recipes vary, though, with versions made for vegetarians or for religious dietary laws: see gelatine in sweets explained
How they are made
Carve the bear. The original design for each sweet is carved into plaster by an artist, then copied by machine to make the stamps for the production line.Print the moulds. A starch mogul stamps the bear shape into trays filled with powdered starch: see what is starch moulding?Pour. The hot, liquid gummy mixture is poured into the hollows.Set. It is left to cool overnight.Release. Once set, the bears are lifted out of the starch and packed.
Why the backs are flat
The starch moulds are open on top. The bear is stamped into the powder from above, so only its front is formed, and the back, where the mixture meets the air, sets flat.
Chewy or short
The gelling agent changes the bite. Large sour gummy bears are flatter and softer and include fumaric acid or other acids for sourness, and some makers produce sour bears based on starch instead of gelatine. Starch typically gives a shorter texture, a cleaner and less chewy bite, than gelatine: see starch jelly sweets explained
From Bonn to the world
Hans Riegel started Haribo in Bonn in 1920. In 1922, inspired by the trained dancing bears once seen at street festivals and markets, he invented the Dancing Bear, a small, affordable, fruit flavoured gum sweet, much larger than its later successor. During Germany's hyperinflation, Dancing Bears stayed affordable at one pfennig a pair. Their success led to Haribo's Gold Bears in 1967. The original gummy bears were made with gum arabic, which is where the name gummy comes from: see why are gummy bears shaped like bears?
Our pick and mix includes golden bears, halal golden bears and vegan gummy bears.

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