Introduction

The confectionery industry divides confectionery into three classes: chocolate confectionery, flour confectionery and sugar confectionery. Chocolate confectionery is obviously things made out of chocolate. Flour confectionery covers items made out of flour. Traditionally, and confusingly, this covers both long life products, such as biscuits, in addition to short-life bakery products. Sugar confectionery covers the rest of confectionery. In spite of the above definition, liquorice, which does contain flour, is considered to be sugar confectionery. The confectionery industry has created many confectionery products that are a mixture of categories, e.g. a flour or sugar confectionery centre that is covered with chocolate. There is another category that is sometimes referred to as 'sugar-free sugar confectionery'. This oxymoron refers to products that resemble sugar confectionery products but which are made without any sugars. The usual reason for making these products is to satisfy special dietary needs. A better name might be 'sugar confectionery analogues'.

The manufacture of confectionery is not a science-based industry. Confectionery products have traditionally been created by skilled craftsman confectioners working empirically, and scientific understanding of confectionery products has been acquired retroactively. Historically, sugar confectionery does have a link with one of the science-based industries – pharmaceuticals. In the eighteenth century, sugar confectionery products were made by pharmacists as pleasant products because the active pharmaceutical products were unpleasant. The two industries continue to share some technology, such as making sugar tablets and applying panned sugar coatings. There are products that although apparently confectionery are legally medicines. This usually applies to cough sweets and similar products. In the United Kingdom these products are regulated under the Medicines Act and require a product licence. This means that all the ingredients for the product are specified and cannot easily be altered. The dividing line between confectionery and medicines is not uniform in all countries.

One reason that confectionery making is not a science-based industry is the very long product life. The Rowntree's fruit pastille was invented in 1879 and was first marketed in 1881. This product is still one of the leading sugar confectionery lines in the UK today (1999), and it appears that it will continue to be sold into the 21st century. The man who invented it, Claud August Gaget, knew nothing of proteins or the peptide bond. In 1879 very little was known about proteins in scientific circles so there was no scientific basis from which to work.

FOOD LAW

Legislation affects all parts of the f