Popping confection SoundyCandy goes sugarfree

Turkish startup Toller Gida has collaborated with ingredients supplier Beneo for a sugar-free version of its hard-boiled sweet SoundyCandy.

SoundyCandy is a popping candy that implodes in the mouth when consumed with a drink.

It won the ISM New Product Showcase award in 2015 and now its creator Tolga Erden, founder of Toller Gida, hopes to license the technology after creating a version sweetened with Beneo’s isomalt.

Sugar reduction megatrend

“Sugar reduction and sugar replacement is one of the megatrends at the present moment,” Bodo Fritzching, commercial managing director at Beneo-Palatinit, told ConfectioneryNews at Cologne trade fair ISM.

Beneo’s technical team visited Toller Gida in Turkey last year and explored how SoundyCandy could be sweetened with isomalt.

“Isomalt in a hard-boiled candy is a little bit more brittle,” said Fritzching.

“The isomalt helps to [enhance] flavors – so besides this soundy effect of the carbon which is released while you suck on it, flavors are coming through more clearly. A fresh strawberry tastes like a fresh strawberry,” he said.

Something different in hard candy

The Beneo commercial manager said sugar-free popping candy was something new to the hard confectionery segment.

“In the US, you have about 14% share of sugar-free in hard candy – in Europe it’s about 17%,” said Fritzching.

“It’s not growing that much – it’s more growing with the population than anything else, so there you need this innovation.”

Istanbul-based Toller Gida has patented its technology in Turkey and Europe and is open to licensing the technology for own-label products.