In April 2024, the overseas nutrient platform NOW conducted tests on some creatine gummies brands on Amazon and found that the failure rate reached 46%. This has raised concerns about the quality of creatine soft candies and further affected the demand for them. The key to the failure lies in the unstable content of creatine in the soft candies, with some products even being tested to have zero creatine content. The underlying reason for this situation may lie in the difficulties in the production of creatine gummies and the current immaturity of the manufacturing process:
Difficult Molding
When creatine is added to the soft candy gel solution, it reacts with some colloidal molecules, preventing them from adhering normally, which prevents the solution from gelling smoothly, ultimately leading to difficulties in candy molding.
Poor Taste
The addition of a large amount of creatine to the soft candy body gives it a distinct bitter taste. At the same time, when the particle size of creatine is high, it can also lead to a "gritty" texture (a noticeable foreign body sensation when chewing).
The difficulty in molding and poor taste have made how and how much creatine to add a problem that plagues the production of creatine gummies, and it has become a bottleneck for the sustainable and healthy development of creatine soft candies.
Justgood Health Group's Breakthrough in Creatine Gummies Manufacturing Process
In mid-2023, as creatine ingredients and creatine soft candies were rapidly developing, Justgood Health Group received a demand from overseas customers: to develop a creatine soft candy product with stable content and good taste. With years of experience in the production and research and development of functional nutritional foods and health foods, Justgood Health Group successfully broke through the various difficulties in colloids, raw materials, and process flows through technological, creating a mature production plan for creatine soft candies.
(1) Extensive Testing to Find a More Suitable Colloid Formula
To solve the problem of difficulty in molding candies after adding creatine, Justgood Health tested all mainstream colloids and compared various combination and blending schemes, ultimately establishing a candy molding colloid scheme dominated by gellan gum.
The new colloid formula greatly reduced the impact of creatine on molding, and after several rounds of sample production, the creatine soft candies were successfully molded.
(2) Process Improvement to Solve Mass Production Challenges
Although the right colloid was available, the high concentration and large-scale addition of creatine in mass production still posed a challenge to the molding of the soft candies.
Justgood Health R&D personnel improved the production process by adding treated creatine raw materials after the cooking and mixing stage, greatly reducing the impact of creatine on the colloid. After a series of adjustments, the creatine soft candies were successfully molded, and the creatine content could be stably achieved at 1788mg per 4g piece.
(3) Raw Material Improvement, Balancing Efficiency, Content, and Taste
Faced with the gritty taste issue, Justgood Health ultra-micronized the creatine raw materials, further reducing the particle size of creatine, thereby reducing the grittiness of the soft candies. However, the ultra-micronized creatine requires a large amount of water to disperse in the solution, but using too much water reduces production efficiency and prevents continuous production.
After balancing production efficiency, content addition, and taste, according to customer needs, Justgood Health appropriately reduced the creatine content and adjusted the production line and cooking process again, customizing new cooking parameters to make it more suitable for the production of creatine soft candies, ultimately achieving a mature production plan for creatine soft candies with good taste, stable content, and high production efficiency.
(4) Process Iteration, Continuously Enhancing Formula, Taste, and Sensory Experience
Subsequently, Justgood Health continued to fine-tune and iterate the product formula, sensory experience, and taste, ultimately achieving a mature deliverable plan. Looking back on the development process, Justgood Health R&D personnel continuously overcame difficulties in the process of encountering, analyzing, and solving problems, making the development process spiral upward, steadily advancing and landing, and ultimately gaining customer satisfaction and recognition.
Post time: Oct-28-2024