Research Progress of Health Candy

As people pay more and more attention to the nutrition and health of food, the development of functional food has ushered in favorable circumstances. The phenomenon of “Snacking” in functional food is one of the predictable trends in the future. Under the impact of foreign brands, domestic confectionery is gradually transforming from taste demand to functional demand. First of all, in this research, the relevant patents of health candy within the latest 5 years are investigated, the ingredients of health candy in accordance with function are classified, and the distribution of product types and the processing characteristics of different types of candies as carriers of functional components are analyzed. The result of the investigation shows that the majority of patents of health candy were associated with the function of improving immunity, followed by the function of hypoglycemic effect, lowering the blood pressure and blood lipid. In terms of product type, tablet candy occupied the most proportion of patents of health candy in the past five years, but its number declined after 2018 while gel candy had been increased slightly since 2017. As for the number of hard sugar patents, it was at a relatively low level and continued to decline. Secondly, this study sorts the functional ingredients into 5 categories (including fruits and vegetables, medicinal and edible ingredients, probiotics, minerals and vitamins, and sugar-free candy), to summarize the application status and analyze the processing characteristics of different types of functional ingredients. Finally, the research contents and methods of health candy at home and abroad are analyzed, and some suggestions for the future development of health candy are proposed.