Gummy Co-Packer: Gelatin or Pectin, Molds, Colors and Quotes

A gummy co-packer cooks your recipe, deposits it into molds, cures, coats and bags it, the slow, sticky work that keeps a gummy maker at the stove. The first question is the gelling agent: gelatin for the classic chew, which rules out vegan and needs a source buyers accept, or pectin for a shorter bite that works vegan. Then the line: a starch mogul deposits into trays of cornstarch and suits big runs; a starchless depositor pours into silicone or metal molds and suits smaller ones, with your own mold shapes costing extra. Gummies need curing to the right moisture so they don't sweat or stick, and a coating, sugar sanding or an oil, to stop them sticking in the bag. Colors are a label question: a certified color is declared by name, such as Red 40, while colors from fruits and vegetables are declared differently. And gummy vitamins are dietary supplements, a different set of rules and a different co-packer. In the example below, a Sacramento gummy maker selling about 3,000 bags a month pays $1.74 a bag depositing it itself, $1.41 with a small starchless co-packer, and $1.00 with a large plant whose minimum is eight months of bags. Below is what gummy co-packers do, the recipe and label questions, three quotes, and a free calculator.

The short version

• Gummy co-packers cook, deposit, cure, coat and bag your recipe.
• Gelatin gives the classic chew; pectin works vegan.
• Starch moguls suit big runs; starchless depositors suit smaller ones.
• Curing to the right moisture stops sweating and sticking.
• Certified colors are declared by name on the label.
• Gummy vitamins are supplements, with their own rules.
• TaroStack keeps track of your bags at the co-packer, by lot, as a site of its own. More below.

What gummy co-packers do

They cook sugar, glucose syrup and the gelling agent to a set solids level, add acid, flavor and color, deposit into molds, cure in rooms with controlled humidity, demold, sand or oil, and bag by weight. Most buy the sugar and gelling agent; a fruit purée or a custom flavor you may supply. What a co-packer is in general is in what is a co-packer, candy more widely in candy co-packers, and supplements in supplement co-packer.

Recipe and label questions

The co-packer registers with FDA as a food facility (21 CFR 1.226). How the label fits together is in food labeling requirements for small business. This is general information, not legal advice.

Three quotes compared

Sugar Pine Gummies, a made-up gummy candy maker in Sacramento, California, I use in these examples, sells about 3,000 four-ounce bags of pectin fruit gummies a month:

The small co-packer saves 33 cents a bag, about $990 a month, and the depositing days, with silicone molds in Sugar Pine's own fruit shapes. The large plant's dollar a bag needs 25,000 bags, eight months of sales, and a shape from its existing starch trays; pectin gummies keep, but eight months is long for a candy that sells on looking fresh. How candy prices out is in candy business profit margin.

What to settle before the first run

• The recipe: gelling agent, solids, acid, flavor and color.
• Mold shapes, and who pays for custom molds.
• Cure time and target moisture, and the coating.
• Bag weight and declared net weight.
• Colors and allergens on the label, lot code and best-by date.

What a spec sheet holds is in product specification sheet.

Get the calculator

Download the gummy co-packer quote calculator. One column for each quote and one for depositing it yourself: type the run you'd order, the minimum, the loss, the setup, the fee or your labor, the ingredients, the bag and label, freight and storage, and the run's cost, the months it takes to sell at your sales a month, the storage while it sells, the cost of each good bag and the cash out before it sells fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

Gummies at the co-packer, bags and labels in two places, five flavors and a mold set that's yours: a spreadsheet doesn't know which run a bag came from or how many bags of each flavor are left.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps track of your bags at the co-packer, by lot, as a site of its own.

The co-packer as a site. The co-packer's premises can be a site, so the bags and labels you send are a transfer, shown in transit until they arrive, and the finished cases there are counted as yours. More than one site is on Standard at $99 a month.

Runs as batches. Each run is a batch with a lot and its best-by date, so orders pick the earliest dates first.

Bags on time. Bags and labels come up on the reorder list in days of cover, with each supplier's lead time and minimum.

Sites, transfers, recipes, batches and lots are on Standard at $99 a month for more than one site. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

How much does a gummy co-packer cost?

In the example, $1.41 a four-ounce bag at a small starchless co-packer and $1.00 at a large starch-mogul plant, including ingredients, the bag and freight.

Can a co-packer make vegan gummies?

Yes, with pectin instead of gelatin; ask whether the line also runs gelatin gummies and how it's cleaned.

What is the minimum order for a gummy co-packer?

In the example, 3,000 bags at a small co-packer and 25,000 at a large plant.

Are gummy vitamins made by the same co-packers?

Often by different ones: vitamin gummies are dietary supplements, with their own manufacturing rules.