Effects of sugar composition on shelf life of hard candy: Optimization study using D‐optimal mixture design of experiments

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the sugar formulation that maximizes the shelf life and critical moisture content of hard candy and to verify the relationship between the response variables. The method used was the mixture design of experiments. Experimental points were determined using a D‐optimal mixture design. Industrial‐scale tests were conducted using three commercial sugars commonly found in hard candies. The models were fitted to the experimental results and evaluated via an analysis of variance. There was a maximum point (58.17 d) for the accelerated shelf life model, which was 0.600, 0.200, and 0.200 for the mass fractions of sucrose, 40 DE corn syrup, and 20 DE high‐maltose corn syrup, respectively; the maximum critical moisture content (3.88%) was 0.593, 0.228, and 0.179, respectively. The optimum formulation resulted in a product whose estimated shelf life extended 7 months beyond the expiration date usually used in the industry. Practical Applications The results have implications for increasing the shelf life and agility in the development of new products. A practical and low‐cost method for determining the critical moisture content using accelerated tests in the confectionery industry is proposed. This study is a direct application of the mixture design of experiments on an industrial scale and provides significant results not found in the literature.

Background, Applications and Issues of the Experimental Designs for Mixture in the Food Sector

“…By the practical point of view, when possible, it could be advisable to reduce the space to a regular form such as that in Figure 2B in order to apply the standard designs (see next paragraph). However, when it is not possible (Figure 2A), the best experimental points could be selected by approaches such as the D-optimal criterion [11,[21][22][23]. When the simplex is reduced, components could be transformed in the so-called pseudo-components.…”

“…In [101] a simplex-lattice design was used to formulate frying oils (from soybean, safflower and flaxseed oils) with high content of essential fatty acids and low n-6/n-3 ratio. Other studies have regarded the shelf-life of cakes and candies [23,102]. In [102], jujube flour was used to improve the shelf-life of sponge cakes and the results showed that using about 7% of the ingredient in partial substitution of sugar and refined wheat flour improved not only the shelf life of the product but even the textural and physicochemical properties.…”

“…In [102], jujube flour was used to improve the shelf-life of sponge cakes and the results showed that using about 7% of the ingredient in partial substitution of sugar and refined wheat flour improved not only the shelf life of the product but even the textural and physicochemical properties. Spanemberg and colleagues [23] used a D-optimal design to determine the sugar formulation that maximizes the shelf life and critical moisture content of hard candy. In this case, the critical factor affecting the shelf-life was moisture.…”

Formulation Optimization of Sucrose-Free Hard Candy Fortified with Cudrania tricuspidata Extract

“…Amongst several mixture designs, a D-optimal mixture design can be used to determine the optimal formulae of products containing various ingredients with high prediction accuracy [40]. This technique has recently been utilized in food research that optimizes product components, such as hard candy [41], chewing gums [42], and milk tablets [43].…”

Optimization of a new coating agar gel formulation using D‐optimal mixture design and study its effects on fresh‐cut apple slices along with cold storage

“…Through implementing this method, several factors can be simultaneously studied with low experimental runs leading to saving time and cost (Myers et al., 2016). In addition, this method is used for irregular experimental regions or constrained mixture formula (Spanemberg et al., 2019).…”