How to Manufacture Vitamin Gummies at Your Facility
The popularity of gummy vitamins has skyrocketed in recent years. For many young consumers, gummies are the only vitamins they’ve ever known, and the only type they’ll consider purchasing.
Thanks to the development of machinery and equipment made just for gummy production, the gummy industry has become readily accessible for pharmaceutical manufacturers wishing to expand their product offerings.
Is your manufacturing team thinking about entering the gummy vitamin market? Let’s review all you need to know about machinery, equipment, and the gummy vitamin production process.
Machinery and Equipment for Manufacturing Gummies at Scale
Much of the open source guidance on gummy making caters to hobbyists who are learning to make small batches at home. However, most of the guides, tips, and sales pages you’ll encounter online aren’t useful for commercial manufacturers.
To produce vitamin gummies at scale, heavy machinery is required, along with high-quality auxiliary equipment and devices.
Here are the primary machinery and equipment required for industrial pharmaceutical gummy manufacturing.
Gummy Production System
Most of the machinery required for gummy production belongs to a single multi-faceted unit known as a gummy production system. Cooking, depositing, and cooling all occur within different components along the system’s various connected stations.
It’s important to select a production system that works for your manufacturing budget and is capable of meeting production goals. At Gummy Tech, we offer the following gummy production systems with depositor speeds that range from 15,000 gummies per hour up to 240,000 gummies per hour.
- GT150 – Depositor speeds of up to 15,000 gummies per hour
- GT300 – Depositor speeds of to 30,000 gummies per hour
- GT600 – Depositor speeds of up to 60,000 gummies per hour
- GT1200 – Depositor speeds of up to 120,000 gummies per hour
- GT2400 – Depositor speeds of up to 240,000 gummies per hour
Gummy Molds
Molds are used for establishing a gummy’s shape and size. Molds prevent gummies from sticking together or losing their form during the cooling process. Manufacturers may choose to use standard shapes, such as gumdrops, or to order custom gummy molds.
Water Activity Meter
Gummy vitamins need to contain a certain amount of moisture. However, excessive water content may lead to bacterial growth, reduced shelf life, and texture problems.
To keep close tabs on moisture content during gummy production, the tool of choice is a water activity meter. These handheld devices provide rapid and precise measurements that allow quality control procedures to keep pace with the production line.
Rapid Channel Counter
Because they’re sticky and irregularly shaped, counting gummies into containers is a difficult task to perform at scale.
To complete counting quickly and accurately, a rapid channel counter designed specifically for gummies is required. This impressive machine uses a feed hopper and a cleated elevator to precisely count and transfer enormous volumes of gummies at high speeds.
The Gummy Vitamin Manufacturing Process
Gummy manufacturing procedural details vary from team to team and product to product. However, gummy making can be generally described as a three-step process, consisting of:
- Cooking
- Depositing and cooling
- Coating (optional) and quality control
Let’s briefly discuss each phase.
Cooking
Gummy production starts with a cooking phase. In a kettle, base ingredients are heated down into a “slurry” state. The slurry is transferred to a storage mixing tank where more ingredients are added.
These may include flavorings, coloring agents, and citric acid for pH control. Active ingredients, such as vitamins and minerals, are also added at this time.
Depositing and Cooling
After cooking, the slurry is moved to a depositor hopper. Precise amounts of the mixture are deposited into molds that have been pre-chilled and oiled. For cooling, the molds move through a chilling tunnel that helps them solidify and take shape. Cooled gummies are then removed from their molds and placed onto drying trays.
Coating and Quality Control
Gummy makers may choose to add a coating to gummies. Coating is an optional step that’s used to improve flavor and texture and reduce sticking between units.
Following coating, final quality control monitoring occurs. This may include product inspections, water activity analysis, and government-required verification procedures.
Getting Started With Vitamin Gummy Manufacturing
When you’re ready to begin preparing for gummy vitamin production at your facility, Gummy Technologies can support your machinery and equipment needs with the industry’s leading products.
Contact our team anytime to discuss your gummy vitamin goals with one of our expert team members.