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Innutri Soft Gums™ - Inspired by nature

Writer's picture: Federico InnerebnerFederico Innerebner

How Innutri technology came about


All around our globe . . . where gummy sweets are made, and for more than 100 years, it is considered a necessity that the mass with which the gummy sweets are made must be intensively cooked. This cooking process is completely natural for anyone working in the confectionery manufacturing sector. It is a necessity and so obvious that nobody questions it. As self-evident and unquestionable as the fact that the sky is blue.



Even if we cook in our own kitchen, it is quite normal for valuable and sensitive ingredients such as vitamins and other essential natural ingredients as well as natural flavours to be degraded, destroyed to a certain extent or even completely destroyed by heating.


When we set out to solve this problem, we were not even aware of it. We had been dealing with the problem of plastic waste for a long time and were on our way to develop a bioplastic that would decompose and disappear by itself in a natural environment.



We wanted to do something good for the environment and nature

Our strategy was based on the bio-molecule starch as the basis for the bioplastic. We were material scientists and engineers and had in-depth knowledge of starch macromolecules and their behaviour, knew a number of ways to modify the starch so that it showed desired properties, that it became hard and tough, or soft and rubbery or transparent like glass.


Gummy sweets were originally made from gelatine. Only gelatine was capable of producing the soft, rubbery texture that is so popular all over the world. Initially, there were no concerns that gelatine was made from slaughterhouse waste. However, this became a very serious issue as the new disease of mad cow disease emerged and as the need for vegetarian and vegan foods became more and more important.


Back then, when we were experimenting with starch, trying this and that, we also produced samples that were not suitable for bioplastics, but which surprisingly behaved exactly like gelatine. And based on the correlations between the molecular and microscopic structure and the macroscopic properties, we soon had a whole series of products that corresponded to different variations of gelatine textures.

The experts from the industry were very surprised, they had never seen that the gelatine texture could be reproduced so accurately. And we believed that this would be a great success. Until it turned out that the methods and equipment commonly used in the confectionery industry were unfortunately not suitable for producing our starch-based soft gums. We tried all sorts of things and invested a lot of money, only to realise that there really was no reasonable industrial process to produce our great soft gums.


Never give up if you want to realise a vision! - That's the motto. But at some point we were forced to give up and the project was officially buried. However, one of us carried on in secret. We played with possible solutions in our heads, which cost nothing, while cycling, swimming and climbing in the mountains. And one day, not so long after the official end of the project, . . .


Then, at the end of hope, nature helped us

. . . as he walked barefoot over the soft forest floor, where light fell in rays through the canopy of trees, where birds called, chirped and sang here and there, ants and beetles rustled in the leaves in the silence, as he crossed a small river with a sandy bottom, observing the movements of the swirling sand, suddenly everything was very simple and completely clear.


Of course, it could also be one of those ideas that are too good to be true, that turn out to be unrealisable on closer inspection, that have a hitch somewhere. But until the next day, none was found, nothing came to light as to why the idea should not work. And then the first test in the laboratory showed that it actually worked. And it quickly became clear that the new technology for producing soft gums could only work if the mass was not cooked. Fortunately, this was not a problem, but a significant advantage.

This is why the new technology was called Low Temperature Mogul (LTM) Technology. It is the only depositing technology in the confectionery industry that works without boiling the depositing mass, which, although it has always been done this way, is problematic, especially with high-quality and natural ingredients.


It also saves significant amounts of energy and CO2 equivalents that are normally used to heat up tonnes of mass. Our technology is therefore the only moulding technology that handles sensitive ingredients with care. A characteristic that is particularly important for natural, high-quality products.


This was discovered and found rather than invented, walking barefoot across the soft forest floor, crossing a small river with a sandy bottom, watching the sand swirl up. The idea was born in nature. The idea for a new process that is particularly suitable for natural products with valuable, sensitive ingredients. An idea that has fundamentally changed the way gummy sweets have been made for more than 100 years.


And the fact that the need for cooking became superfluous was only the first of many other favourable characteristics of the new technology, as was to become apparent.


If you have a vision, a dream, never give up! There may be facts that seem unquestionable because they are so clear. But this may only seem so. There have been times in the history of the earth when the sky was not blue, but orange or possibly even green or violet.


That's why our soft gums are truly inspired by nature

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