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How are strawberry laces made?
Strawberry laces are made the same way as liquorice bootlaces, just without the liquorice. Here is how the long red strands are made, what is in a typical supermarket bag, and why they are not gluten free.
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Strawberry laces are long, thin strands of chewy, strawberry flavoured sweet, sold loose in pick and mix and in bags. They are made the same way as liquorice bootlaces, by extrusion, but without any liquorice.
Extrusion: the key step
Extrusion means forcing a soft, mixed food through a plate or die with openings cut to the shape you want. Blades then cut the extruded strands to length. It is used for pasta and breakfast cereals as well as sweets, and liquorice is one of the classic extruded sweets: see how is liquorice made?
Red liquorice, which contains no liquorice at all, is made from a starchy or gummy binder with sugar, extruded into ropes or tubes with a chewy texture, and flavoured with things like strawberry, cherry or raspberry. Strawberry laces are part of the same family.
How the laces are made
- Mix. Glucose syrup, wheat flour, sugar and a little fat are mixed into a dough with fruit juice, acid, colour and flavouring.
- Cook. Like liquorice paste, the mixture is cooked before it is shaped.
- Extrude. The dough is forced through a die with small round openings, and comes out as long, thin strands.
- Cut. Blades cut the strands to length.
- Glaze. A thin glaze, often beeswax, stops the laces sticking together in the bag.
What is in a bag of laces
The food database Open Food Facts records the ingredients of several UK supermarket strawberry laces. Sainsbury's version, for example, lists glucose fructose syrup, wheat flour, sugar, dextrose, palm oil, citric acid, concentrated strawberry and blackcurrant juice, fruit and vegetable concentrates of apple, pumpkin, radish and tomato, a white beeswax glaze, flavouring and antioxidants. The Co op's laces are made in the Netherlands to a very similar recipe.
Fruit and vegetable concentrates like these are used as colouring foods, which colour sweets without synthetic dyes: see natural colours in sweets
Fizzy and sour laces
Sour laces can be coated in sour sanding, a mixture of sugar with citric, tartaric and malic acids that gives sweets a sour taste: see how are sour sweets made?
Allergens and diets
Because most strawberry laces are made with wheat flour, they contain gluten and are not suitable for people with coeliac disease unless the label says they are gluten free: see wheat in sweets. A beeswax glaze means they are not vegan: see what is beeswax on sweets?
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Questions and answers
How are strawberry laces made?
A chewy dough of sugars, wheat flour, fruit juice and flavouring is cooked and pushed through an extruder, a machine that forces it through a die with small openings to make long, thin strands. The strands are cut to length and given a thin glaze to stop them sticking.
Are strawberry laces gluten free?
Usually not. Supermarket strawberry laces recorded on the food database Open Food Facts, from Sainsbury's, Tesco and the Co op, all list wheat flour, which contains gluten. Check the label for gluten free versions.
Are strawberry laces vegan?
Not always. Several supermarket laces list beeswax as their glazing agent, which is not vegan. Check the ingredients for the glaze.
Sources
- Food extrusion, Wikipedia
- Liquorice (confectionery), Wikipedia
- Sainsbury's Strawberry Laces, Open Food Facts
- Coop Strawberry laces, Open Food Facts
- Tesco Strawberry Flavour Laces, Open Food Facts
- Sour sanding, Wikipedia
Keep reading
- How it is madeHow is liquorice made?Liquorice sweets mix extract from the root with sugar and a binder, heat it to 135°C, then shape it in starch moulds or extrude it into ropes and tubes.
- How it is madeHow are sour sweets made?Sour sweets get acid inside and out: citric or malic acid can be mixed into the sweet, and sour coated ones are tumbled in sugar mixed with acid crystals.
- Diet, allergens and labelsWheat in sweetsWheat turns up in liquorice, wafer bars and malted centres, while wheat glucose syrup is exempt from gluten labelling. How to spot wheat and gluten.
- Questions people askWhat is beeswax on sweets?Beeswax, E901, is the wax honey bees build their comb with. A thin coat gives sweets a shine and keeps moisture in. It is not vegan and cannot be digested.
- Diet, allergens and labelsNatural colours in sweetsSweets are increasingly coloured with plants: spirulina for blue, black carrot for red and purple, turmeric and paprika for yellow. How they are labelled.
- How it is madeWhat happens inside a sweet factory?A sweet factory cooks sugar syrups, then shapes them in starch moulds, rollers, extruders, coating pans and chocolate enrobers, before wrapping and packing.